Reap My Heart
by iSipTea
Summary: USUK, AU: Arthur is one of the best in his line of work. Reaping souls. Alfred works undercover in a secret agency to try to eliminate the reapers' power for the sake of humanity. They think they're on different sides of this war, but there's someone else hidden in the darkness pulling all the strings. Rated M for future chapters.
1. Prologue

Arthur, bored out of his mind, sat in his office and searched through the ever growing pile of paperwork in his office. He managed to uncover a book that he must have accidentally left in his office, untouched and abandoned until now. Arthur opened the old book of folklore and moved to a page that he had bookmarked in the past.

"The Grim Reaper is perhaps the most recognized entity of all time, **neither ghost nor god**; the Grim Reaper's job is to **conduct the souls of the recently dead into the afterlife**. The Grim Reaper is not a personification of death in charge of the entire world, but rather **each area has their own Grim Reaper who serves as the Grim Reaper of the area until such a time as they find a replacement,**" Arthur read aloud, his British accent ringing clear and true. He laughed bitterly and threw the book aside. It hit the floor with a hollow thump. He knew better than to trust whoever wrote that book.

After all, he is a reaper himself.

* * *

Alfred yawned and munched on a hamburger, chilling out in his office with nothing good to do. He sat on his chair and put his feet on the desk, which was polished clean of all the paperwork he had. He saw something interesting in the corner of his eye, under the desk. He bent down to pick it up. It was an old book of legends he had.

"In folklore, the Grim Reaper is a genderless figure (assumedly male) who wears a dark cloak with a hood covering his face, and is renowned for carrying a scythe. The Grim Reaper is said to **kill anyone it touches**. In modern day storytelling, the Grim Reaper takes the soul of a person when it is their time to leave the living world. Many people believe Death is a messenger of Satan, but it takes life when it is the person's time, regardless of what happens in their afterlife. **He is known to have no enemies**," Alfred read out loud to himself. He laughed happily and placed the book down, continuing to chew on his burger.

"The reapers have an enemy. They just don't know who it is yet," Alfred said mysteriously, an all knowing glint in his eyes.

He was their enemy.

* * *

**Author's Note: Hello fanfiction world! This is my very first fanfic ever! *throws metaphoric confetti metaphorically***

**I'll probably post one chapter per week... Or something. It just depends.**

**I hope it doesn't seem too confusing! For the next two chapters I'll try introducing the rest of the characters (yes, there's more!) and after that, the story will continue. I've got it all figured out! More or less.**

**See you in the very first chapter.**


	2. Chapter 1

Arthur worked at Reaper's Harvest. On the outside, it looked like a simple secondhand store and swap shop, but on the inside it was a very thriving business. A business full of reapers and their harvest of souls. Arthur had to admit, the pay was well and the job itself was exciting, but he had a strange feeling that they were exposing themselves a little too easily. He was already surprised that nobody was suspicious of the store.

He decided to stop thinking about that as he entered the old shop. He happily greeted Kiku Honda, who was taking his shift of making sure reapers reach headquarters and nobody else gets in. They also took care of the business too, trading whatnot, buying, and selling. Whatever they bought is theirs to keep.

"Hello Kiku. It's a fine day today don't you think?" Arthur said happily, giving the Japanese man a friendly handshake.

"It is a fine day. I managed to get myself this great urn with a depiction of a cat. I was hoping to give it to Heracles for our anni-" Kiku said before he realized he was about to spill more than he bargained for. Arthur laughed.

"Don't worry. I didn't hear a thing," Arthur said, remembering the lazy Greek man and Kiku's "secret" relationship. It was never a secret, though. Everyone knew. He just wanted to humor Kiku and keep on his good side.

"Than- Thank you, Arthur," Kiku said, giving a small bow, "The password for this week is 'Greed'."

"Anything for an old friend of mine," Arthur said. He walked into the storage room and locked the door firmly, though he knew it was just going to unlock later. The room was stuffy and dark, but Arthur was unfazed.

"Greed," he said. With that one word, the wall parallel to the door opened, revealing an elevator that led to the rest of the corporation. He stepped on and pressed for floor -5, where all the offices, including his, were located. The doors slid close and he waited for a minute before the doors finally opened.

Arthur still couldn't understand why the corporation was so insistent on making everything seem realistic. He knew that there were stores set up all around the world. He knew that they all had the same layout. He knew that all the elevators led to one place. He just didn't know why it couldn't be more… magical.

He shook that thought away and took a step forward into the room full of reapers, harvesters, and others rushing to get to places. The offices were assorted like in a normal building. Some were like those small cubicles, which were for the less known reapers. If you were a big shot reaper, you'd get a large room all to yourself and an assistant.

"I just wish my assistant was actually useful though," Arthur thought as he fumbled with the keys to his office. The door said in golden letters, "Mr. Kirkland". When he finally managed to open the door, he found his incompetent assistant asleep on one of the couches.

"Get up, Bonnefoy," Arthur said, as he maneuvered to his desk, piled with papers as usual.

"Ah, bonjour Arthur," The man said as he woke from his slumber.

"Francis, I told you if you weren't going to help me with anything, we wouldn't go on a first name basis," Arthur said, annoyed with the Frenchman's dopey smile.

"Oh but I did help you. With this conversation. Now if I could only help you lose the attitude," Francis said before he dodged a punch from Arthur.

"Ah see? You're such a feisty one. I like that," Francis said, purring slightly.

"Cut the bullshit and take a nap. A dirt nap," Arthur said. With that, he took his precious scythe that rested under his desk and wielded it with a very dark look.

"Reaper Arthur Kirkland, please come to the courtyard, I repeat, Reaper Arthur Kirkland please come to the courtyard," The speaker announced. Arthur sighed and put away his weapon.

"Oh thank God, I thought I was going to die," Francis said right before Arthur sent a punch to his face and left the room, leaving the Frenchman on the floor writhing in pain.

* * *

As Arthur left his office, he was once again pestered by someone.

"Oh Arthur! Where are you going?" Gilbert, Arthur's harvester, said, his German accent ringing across the room.

Harvesters were the ones who tell the reaper when to take the person's soul and are the ones who deliver the souls to Death, their favorite client. Harvesters owned millions of hourglasses, each one with a specific person's name. When the sand on one glass runs out, the Harvesters inform the Reapers.

"I got called into the courtyard Gilbert. Anything new on the hourglasses?" Arthur said, still moving towards the elevator.

"No. It's so boring! I want to do something awesome, but they banned pets in the offices! Now I can't bring Gilbird anymore," Gilbert said.

"Well, that's too bad. Maybe we can go somewhere when I come back from the courtyard?" Arthur suggested.

"Yeah! That's awesome! Let's go to that one pub in New York. I heard they sold German beer!" Gilbert said.

"Eheh… Okay, that's fine, but I'm not very good with alcohol, you know that," Arthur said, but Gilbert was already off getting ready to go. Arthur just sighed and stepped onto the elevator.

Arthur was once again back in the elevator. He punched the button for floor -1, the courtyard. He tapped his foot impatiently as he wondered why he was being called for. The doors slid open and he found himself in the courtyard.

The courtyard was like a judge's court, except more eerie. Reapers or harvesters that have been inactive or charged for a heinous crime were sent here. Some crimes included those like killing someone who wasn't supposed to die yet, not killing someone who was supposed to die, and others.

The jury that decided the person's fate were the Seers. They could tell by one quick glance whether or not someone has committed a crime or not.

The judge was a very tall man with a long overcoat and scarf. Nobody knows his true identity, and everyone is too afraid to find out. The man exuded a strange dark aura that could freeze a normal person's heart. Good thing there were only reapers, harvesters, and seers.

The courtyard was empty, all except for Arthur and the judge.

"You- You wanted to see me sir?" Arthur said, trying to swallow a lump in his throat that won't go down.

"Oh no Arthur. You can call me Ivan," Ivan said, an innocent smile on his face. Ivan stepped closer.

"Ok then. Did you want to see me, Ivan?" Arthur said. The name Ivan didn't form well on his mouth. In fact, it made the man even more mysterious.

"Yes. Here you go," Ivan said. He handed Arthur the dossier of a human.

The ones who made files were called the Fakelo. Fakelo, like the Seers, can tell a lot in one glance of a person. But Fakelo can see the entire life of the person, not just their crimes. Fakelo were originally supposed to be the jury, but were reassigned due to the fact that they tend to look farther into a person's life and accidentally learn about something too personal. Seers were the more controlled versions of Fakelo.

The Fakelo have files for every single human. The Harvesters would ask them for the file of a human that ran out of sand in their hourglass, and would then give it to the Reapers. The Reapers would use the information to hunt down and take the person's soul. After that, they were to toss the file into the furnace.

"What am I supposed to do with it?" Arthur said, opening the file and perusing its contents.

* * *

Arthur went back to the offices, his face pale with what Ivan had told him to do. He walked quickly, his feet feeling as heavy as lead.

"So Arthur, when do you want to meet at the pub- Holy shit, are you okay man?" Gilbert said.

"Move the pub thing to next week, Gil. I have things to take care of," Arthur said. Not even waiting for Gilbert's reply, Arthur burst into his office and quickly grabbed his scythe and black cloak.

"Mon ange, you still have to apologize for ruining my beautiful face," Francis said, holding an ice pack towards his bruised face.

"Later, I'm busy," Arthur said. He slipped on the black cloak and pulled the hood ever his face.

"Busy with what?" Francis asked.

"There's someone I need to confront," Arthur said darkly, a grim look on his face.

* * *

**Author's Note: Hehe I wonder what Ivan told Arthur that made him so freaked out?**

**Anyways, I'm on a roll! Next chapter will feature Alfred! ****Let's hope I don't put too much information next time around, eh?**

**I'm not very adept with my French, so if I made a mistake, don't hesitate to correct me!**

**I feel like a total noob for saying this, but... I HAVE TWO FOLLOWERS FOR THIS STORY! ****Thank you, Miri-chan98 and Zemmno! You make me one happy writer.**


	3. Chapter 2

"Alfred, wake up!"

Alfred woke with a jolt and found himself staring into the eyes of his good friend, Feliciano. He once again accidentally fell asleep on the couch in the office after overworking himself last night, and Feli had to come and wake him up. It was almost becoming a routine.

"Ve… Alfred you work too hard! I don't want you turning into Ludwig," Feliciano said, his Italian accent becoming more apparent in his worry. He shuddered at the thought.

"Feli, I become Ludwig when you get macho," Alfred said, a goofy smile on his face. They exchanged a chorus of laughter until they realized Ludwig was in front of them the whole time.

"Shit," Alfred said.

* * *

After Ludwig gave a them a firm scolding, he gestured to Alfred that he wanted a private conversation to him. They went inside Ludwig's office.

The room was perfectly spotless, not a speck of dust anywhere. On a bookshelf to the right side of the room was a bunch of Bibles and some other books Alfred wish he hadn't seen. To the left side was the couches and coffee table, similar to the ones Alfred fell asleep on. In the front was his desk that had a computer and a picture of Feli and Ludwig together.

"So what is it boss?" Alfred said.

"Well, I'm becoming seriously worried with your behavior for the past few months," Ludwig said.

"What? What have I been doing?" Alfred said.

"You've been overworking yourself. I know I would usually encourage these kind of things, but it's becoming too much. I know how much you hate the reapers, but please, relax yourself," Ludwig said. He held his breath for Alfred's reaction.

"Oh… Ok then, I guess it's fine if I take a little break now and then. After all, you're the boss," Alfred said.

That's right. Ludwig was the boss. He was the one who established the Reap What You Sow Company, with his bare hands. The purpose of this was to eliminate the reapers. Ludwig claims he started this because he was a Christian, but Alfred assumes there's more to his story. He knows the story involves Feliciano.

"Oh. Okay, that's great! After work how about we go down to that one pub in New York? I heard they sold German beer!" Ludwig said, his mouth already on the verge of drooling over that sacred German beer.

"Sure, that's cool. I'll invite Feli too!" Alfred suggested. Ludwig blushed at the mention of Feliciano joining them.

"Yeah. Sure, that'd be nice," he said. "You're dismissed. Work hard!" Alfred gave a respectful yet somehow mocking salute and left the German's office.

* * *

"_Ay caramba_!"

As he left the room, he accidentally bumped into Antonio, who was carrying boxes of papers. Alfred swiftly caught the papers before they reached their doom, but he wasn't able to save poor Antonio from landing on his behind.

"Sorry, Antonio, I wasn't thinking," Alfred said as he helped up the Spaniard.

"No, no, it's fine. By the way, nice catch!" Antonio said, referring to the way Alfred had caught the papers.

"Hehe thanks," Alfred said.

"Now if you'll excuse me _chico_, I'm going to deliver these to Feliks, Toris, Roderich, and Elizaveta and then after that, I have to go spar with Ludwig," Antonio said. He looked pretty tired out, so Alfred decided to be a hero and help out.

"Hmm… How about I deliver those and you go spar with Ludwig?"

"Really? _Muchas gracias_!" Antonio said and handed the boxes to Alfred. He ran off towards the sparring room.

* * *

"Hey, Feliks, are you there?" Alfred said, opening the door to Feliks' office. To his horror, the whole room was engulfed in pink. Before Alfred could assume all hope was lost, he found Feliks sitting on the now pink chair, his legs on his desk, painting even his nails pink.

"Dude, your whole room is freakin' pink," Alfred said, forgetting why he came there in the first place. Feliks looked up and smiled. He had lip gloss on.

"I know right? It's like, totally fabulous," he said. He closed the bottle of nail polish and walked up to Alfred.

"So, what did you want?" he said. He was wearing what a schoolgirl wore, and somehow, it suited him.

"Oh, here's you box of paper," Alfred said, handing Feliks the box.

"Ohmigosh thanks! I really needed this for my research! I found some, like totally fantabulous information and I wanted to print it out and share it with you guys!" Feliks said, already running to his printer to fill it up with paper.

Though Feliks was a little strange, he was a good worker. He helped Alfred with the information gathering and even questioned locals that have claimed to see strange things. He was even glad to share his office with Toris, who was one of the company's newer recruits. In fact, a bit too glad.

"Anyways, have you seen Toris? I know you guys share the same room, but I haven't seen him around-"

"I'm right here," Toris muffled. He was painted head to toe alongside a wall, and when he stepped out his imprint was left on the wall.

"Wow. The whole time, man?"

"Yes,"

"That's some epic camouflage right there,"

"Hehe, thanks,"

* * *

"Ok, now onto Roderich," Alfred thought as he left the insanely pink room. Roderich's room was right next to his room, which was right next to Elizaveta's, and he couldn't wait to get back to typing.

"Wow, I think I am starting to be like Ludwig," Alfred thought in horror as he opened the door to Roderich's office.

"Hey, I have your pa-" Alfred said, before he realized Roderich and Elizaveta were in the same room. Against the wall. Making out. When Roderich turned around, his face was impossibly red, and he moved a good distance away from Elizaveta, who seemed pretty shocked too.

"Erm… So what did you want?" Roderich said, his body impossibly stiff.

"I have your papers, you guys," Alfred said, completely oblivious to the awkward air. He walked up to Roderich and handed him a box and did the same to Elizaveta.

"Hey you guys, do you mind if I hang out with you guys a bit longer-" Alfred said, before he was answered a flat yes from both of them. So he went back to his room.

Alfred sat in front of his desk and typed away. His job was being the information gatherer. He preferred being the hero that saves the day, but until they knew more about the threat, he wasn't going anywhere. Everyone else helps with the research, cleans up the office, or practices fighting moves with Ludwig. Sometimes Alfred would go spar a bit with Ludwig, but it would always end with his face on the floor.

Alfred googled the word "grim reaper" and scrolled through the hundreds websites he had already looked at. He found a new one and was about to click it when he was interrupted by an Italian.

"Oh, hey Feli, I'm busy-" Alfred said, before he was interrupted.

"It's Lovino, numbnuts. I just came to tell you that you've been hanging out with my precious Feli too much. First it was the potato eater, now it's the hamburger eater. Seriously, I've had enough with you guys ruining my bond between my brother. It's like- Hey, are you even fucking listening to me?" Lovino said, staring at Alfred, who was still glued to the computer screen.

"No, sorry, what did you say?" Alfred said, snapping his head from the piece of technology.

"Argh, forget it you piece of shit, I'll bother you later," Lovino said. Alfred immediately translated it into "Oh, sorry, I guess you're a bit busy right now. I'll tell you later,"

The door shut and Alfred was once again alone. He continued mindlessly scrolling through the endless websites, till he ran into a strange one.

"Reaper's Harvest? I've never heard of that store before…" Alfred thought and clicked the link. It was a secondhand store and swap shop. Alfred was about to close the link but he clicked the enter button. A popup opened. It said in bold lettering "what is the password?"

Alfred typed "hamburgers". The popup redirected him to another website.

The website plainly said "Incorrect. Your computer will self destruct in 5…4…3…2…"

"WHAT THE FUCK?"

*BOOM*

* * *

**Author's Notes: -And the plot thickens!**

**Thank you so much for the 4 favorites, 4 reviews, and 3 follows! I'm glad you guys enjoy the story so far!**

**I tried to make this chapter a bit more lighter in the mood, since the first chapter was a bit dark.**

**Two chapters in one day, man I'm on a roll! Though, from now on, I'll try to take time to make the story a bit more detailed and cleaner. I don't like sloppy work, and I'm sure you don't either.**


	4. Chapter 3

**I almost forgot: I do not own the characters of Hetalia. Hidekaz Himaruya does.**

* * *

"What are you talking about, _monsieur_? What exactly happened in the courtyard that made your skin pale?" Francis said, still tailing Arthur as they left the store. They were in broad daylight, yet nobody else could see them in their long cloaks and sharp scythes. Francis was always fascinated by this.

"That's for me to know, and you to never find out," Arthur said, his mind still on the courtyard.

* * *

"What am I supposed to do with it?" Arthur asked.

"Open it and take a look," Ivan said, his broad smile getting even broader.

When Arthur opened it, he expected to see a photo of some really evil, good-for-nothing punk. It was nothing like that. In fact, it was just a young man with framed glasses, a goofy smile, and an odd piece of hair that seemed to defy the laws of gravity. Arthur smiled faintly as he stared at the guy.

"He looks pretty normal enough. Maybe even a bit handsome… No, what am I thinking?" Arthur thought. While Arthur was mentally beating himself up, Ivan coughed slightly to get back Arthur's attention.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I still don't get what I'm supposed to do about this… Alfred F. Jones," Arthur said. He liked how the name formed on his mouth so naturally.

"I heard he's part of this hidden agency that's planning on taking all reapers down," Ivan said dropping his voice to a mere whisper, like it's a big secret.

"What? But what would he have against us? We're practically part of the process of life," Arthur stated. That was true. Reapers didn't have a choice on when a person would die; they just did what they were told.

"You are to kill him today, Arthur," Ivan said. Arthur paled.

"What… But it isn't his time-"

"Yes, but isn't he threatening you? All reapers could be at stake, if you don't do this," Ivan said. Basically speaking, Ivan was saying that he had no choice but to do it.

"Okay, will do," Arthur said, putting on his best poker face. It was especially hard since Ivan's smile was giving him the shudders. Once the doors to the elevator slid close and Arthur was no longer there did Ivan collapse onto the floor.

* * *

Alfred was barraged with flying pieces of scrap metal as his computer exploded. He tried to duck under the desk for cover, but hit his head and passed out.

As Alfred was regaining consciousness, he heard familiar voices.

"This is, like totally not cool,"

"Ludwig, I want pasta,"

"Antonio, you bastard, stop that!"

"Shh, he's waking up!"

Alfred looked up to find himself laid down on a couch, surrounded by all his colleagues. Everything was incredibly blurry, from both having his glasses taken off and his head hitting the underside of the desk.

"You've been out like a light for an hour or so, Alfie! We were getting worried!" Feli said, clinging to Ludwig's arm like a scared child. Ludwig pretended not to notice with failed results.

"Yeah, what happened? Tell us, like, the whole story!" Feliks said.

Alfred explained the website and a secret password.

"So we need someone to crack the code and get us in there," Ludwig said.

"But, who knows the code?" Antonio said.

"I do," Roderich said, "I mean, I can try to get the password," Elizaveta seemed to understand what he meant by this.

"Really? But how? I hope you don't guess," Toris said. "I don't think our budget can cover the cost of another destroyed computer," Their funds were running dangerously low.

"I have… A source, but I can't tell you who it is. I promised him," Roderich said. Elizaveta nodded and intertwined her fingers around Roderich's.

"How are we supposed to fucking believe you if you're just going to hide all of your sources? For all we know you could be a fucking double agent or some shit like that," Lovino said, his brows furrowed. Antonio whispered something to Lovino that made him turn as red as a tomato.

"You should trust them a bit more, _mi amor. _I trust you, right?" was what Antonio whispered.

"Ok, anyways, how soon can you get the information from your source?" Ludwig said, directing the attention back to Roderich.

"By tomorrow. Elizaveta, bring the frying pan," Roderich said.

"What? I thought we were doing the other plan," Elizaveta said. It sounded like seeing the source was a normal occasion for them.

"Yes, we are. The frying pan's only used in emergency," Roderich said, adjusting his glassing with a strange unbefitting smirk on his face. Nobody understood what the hell they were talking about.

"Okay. I guess that's it. Everyone is dismissed," Ludwig said. "Except you, Alfred. You need rest,"

Alfred tried to sit up. "No look, I'm perfectly fine! See? Ouch," Alfred said. His arms hurt from shielding himself from the exploding computer pieces and he still had the massive headache. He crumbled back onto the couch.

"Feli is making us pasta in about 30 minutes. Rest up, eat, and then you'll be free to go," Ludwig said as he left Alfred's office. The door shut with a loud bang.

"Argh, he makes it sound like I'm a prisoner of war," Alfred thought glumly. He stared out at the window and onto the New York streets. He noticed something peculiar in the distance and took his glasses from the coffee table. It was…

"No… It can't be," It was the Reaper's Harvest. Alfred thought the shop would look really big, but it was about twice the size of his office. It looked run down and old, the black and purple paint around it starting to fade. Or at least, that's how it looked from afar.

"I need to see it up close," Alfred thought. So that he did.

* * *

"Bullocks!" Arthur shouted as he ran into a young man. "I'm so sorry, I wasn't thinking and-" Arthur stopped when he realized he was staring at the man he was looking for.

"Are you okay, sir?" the man asked. He was holding a bear and donned a long coat.

"Is your name- What's your name?" Arthur asked as he helped the other man up.

"Oh, it's Matthew! Matthew Williams!" he said, happy to find that someone wanted to know him. Arthur blatantly did not look pleased. He continued walking without another word. Francis, who was there the whole time, walked up to the now distraught Canadian and put his arm around the shorter man's shoulder. Matthew blushed.

"I apologize, _monsieur_. He always acts like that. I, on the other hand, will give you with the respect you deserve. I'll treat you to dinner!" Francis said. Matthew felt a little better already.

"O-okay, that'd be nice. Are you sure I don't have to pay-"

"I told you, it will be my treat. Let's go soon, the sun is setting!" Francis said as he led him the opposite direction of Arthur.

"Damn, I should've known it wasn't him! I let my guard down too easily. But, he did look a lot like him," Arthur thought. He continued walking briskly as he looked through the dossier.

"Ok, so his work address is… right here!" Arthur thought as he walked up to a large one-story building. Just as he was about to open the door, he heard a large thud to the side of the building and a loud swear. He ran towards the sound.

"FUCK! That was stupid," Alfred said after he had crawled out of the window and fell on his stomach. His vision was getting blurry as he saw a man run up to him. That man was Arthur. Arthur forgot that he was supposed to ask him something important the minute he saw him.

"Are you… An idiot?" Arthur said. He almost hit himself for asking if the man was Alfred. He wasn't supposed to know who he was.

"No, I'm a hero," Alfred replied. Right after he said that Arthur slapped him. "Ow,"

"Get a hold of yourself!" Arthur said as he helped him up.

"Yeah, whatever," Alfred muttered. Arthur propped him onto the wall.

"I'm Arthur. Your name is?" Arthur said.

"Alfred. Alfred F. Jones," Alfred said. Arthur flinched a bit and moved closer.

"This is the guy. He looks a lot handsomer in real life," Arthur thought.

"Anyhow, why'd you jump out of the window?" Arthur said, his cheeks red from the closeness. Alfred didn't notice.

"Oh, my computer exploded, and I got injured. After that, I was told to lie down and rest, but I don't want to rest," Alfred said, trying to make it sound as vague as possible. Arthur just raised a thick eyebrow.

"That's an… interesting story," Alfred started laughing. "What's so funny?"

"Your eyebrows man, they're huge-" Alfred said. Before he could continue, Arthur started ranting.

"What the bloody hell, I help you and this is the thanks that I get? That's nice! You're injured too; the least you could do is thank me! I could have just left you here writhing in pain, but whatever!" Arthur said. He would've said more, but Alfred put a firm warm hand on his mouth and moved a bit closer. Arthur's eyes widened in fear and excitement.

"Dude, you didn't let me finish. I was going to say that they suited you," Alfred said. It was true. Now that Alfred looked a bit more carefully at the man, he had to admit, he was pretty handsome. It didn't help that they were dangerously close to each other. Alfred removed his hand from his mouth and they stared at each other. Arthur moved a smidge closer. This time Alfred noticed and stiffened up.

"Um, I- So… What now?" Arthur said. His breath tickled Alfred's neck.

"How about we…" Alfred said. He pulled back a bit and moved his lips toward Arthur's.

"What the hell are you doing, Alfred?" Ludwig said. He had been looking around for Alfred and found him here. With another guy. Arthur stumbled back and his cheeks went blood red. Alfred just stood there frozen in shock. When Alfred finally came back to his senses, he also went red.

"Er… Hey Ludwig. I couldn't follow your orders, so I tried sneaking out through the window and I fell. After that, Arthur, this guy, came by and helped me up," Alfred said. He pointed at Arthur who was still red faced and mute.

Ludwig didn't get the answer to why they were just about to kiss, but he didn't feel like prying. He heaved a sigh. "You don't want any pasta? Feli just finished making some,"

"No, I'm good," Alfred said. He had lost his appetite when he saw Arthur.

"Then you're dismissed. Take care of the boy, alright?" Ludwig said, looking towards Arthur.

"Don't worry," Arthur said. With that, Ludwig turned and went back inside, muttering something about Feli.

"Erm, sorry about that," Alfred said. Arthur knew what he was talking about.

"It's fine. It's all water under the bridge now," Arthur replied, making it sound as unimportant as possible. He suddenly remembered what he was supposed to ask. "Anyways, I have something to ask you,"

"Oh? What is it?" Alfred said. He thought Arthur was going to ask him out, and he couldn't wait to say yes.

"Do you work for an agency that wants to destroy reap-" Arthur said before he was interrupted.

"Hell yes!" Alfred said, until he realized what Arthur was talking about. "Oh. Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Because," Arthur sucked in a deep breath, "I'm a reaper. If you continue this, I'll be forced to kill you."

* * *

**Author's Notes: Yay, 7 reviews, 7 favorites, and 8 follows! Thank you all! (I've been saying that too often, don't you think?)**

**I feel that I have done this chapter good, since it's not as short. Length is but one factor that makes a story good, though, so I can't rely on just that. I hope it doesn't seem a bit rushed, though. I mean both the story and my chapter updates.  
**

**Constructive criticism is not allowed. It is ENCOURAGED! Seriously, I want to improve, so constructively criticize away!**


	5. Chapter 4

**The characters belong to Hidekaz Himaruya.**

* * *

"I'm a reaper. If you continue this, I'll be forced to kill you."

Arthur left without another word, leaving Alfred to drown in a whirlpool of thoughts and feelings alone.

"He was a… Reaper? Damn, what have I gotten myself into?" Alfred thought. He punched the wall and winced when his left hand started bleeding. Alfred didn't bother fixing it though.

He pulled out the pistol he had in his pocket the whole time and stared at it. Engraved on the side was the word "Freedom". He had that carved on the side himself.

Ludwig had given it to him when he joined the agency, saying that it only worked on Reapers. Well, technically, Ludwig had said it worked on all mythical creatures, but Alfred didn't want to find out what other kinds of things existed. The bullets can be refilled with normal bullets, but it was the gun itself that was special.

Knowing that it wouldn't work on himself, he pocketed it and just stood there staring at the wall.

"I could've used my gun on Arthur… No, I can't do that," Alfred thought glumly. He kept feeling bad about himself until he suddenly concocted the craziest, most life-threatening and most idiotic plan ever. He was absolutely certain it would work.

* * *

"Another drink, waiter!" Arthur said, his words slurring and his head aching. He was only at his third drink and he already felt wasted.

"That's the spirit, Arthur!" Gilbert said, having a swig of his fifth beer. German beer.

He had accepted going to the pub with Gilbert after that depressing encounter with Alfred. He just wanted to forget about that and feel better. The drinks only made him feel like shit.

"God, if only that Ludwig didn't show up, maybe I could have kissed him, and not tell him the one thing he didn't want to hear!" Arthur said. It was too slurred to be actually understood, though.

"I can't blame that man though, that would be stupid. If only I hadn't mentioned being a reaper in the first place! God, it's my entire fault!" Arthur said as he passed out. Arthur's last sentence was actually comprehendible, but before Gilbert could ask about that, he realized he had some company.

"Beilshmidt," he heard a man say. Gilbert spun around and smiled at the man.

"Ah, Roderich, it's nice to see you. Oh no, you brought Elizaveta," Gilbert said, "and her frying pan. What do you need?"

"Information," he said quickly. Gilbert narrowed his eyes.

"What kind of information?"

"Your job,"

"God, Roderich, not this again! I'm tired of having to provide info only to see your little agency go down the drain! It's too risky! They're already having suspicions of me. Not this time-"

"What's the password for your website?"

"You… Managed to go that far? Wow, your agency's not half bad. It's greed, but it alternates every week. I suggest you find what you need quickly," Gilbert said. "Good luck," Elizaveta put down the frying pan and gave Roderich an "I told you so!"

"So Gilbert's part of the agency, too?" Arthur thought. Gilbert had assumed he was not listening, but he heard every word. He felt so betrayed.

"So who's that poor passed out gentleman over there?" Roderich asked.

"Ah, a friend of mine,"

"You're not going to do anything about him?" Roderich said. Gilbert gave a smirk and used the opportunity to his advantage.

"Since I gave you the information, you have to take care of him. Just tell him Gilbert made you take care of him," he said. Before Roderich could explode in rage and make a scene, Elizaveta answered for him.

"We'll do just that," she said. After that, Arthur finally passed out for real, and was taken into Roderich's office to rest.

* * *

Alfred had once again spent the entire night in his office researching (they had to get another computer) and he tossed and turned in the couch. When he finally realized he couldn't sleep, he went out of his office to get a drink of water.

Arthur woke up in what he deduced to be Roderich's office. He was still drunk. He checked his old pocket watch and it was still somewhere around 3 in the morning. He left the room and wandered around the building.

To both their dismays, they ran into each other. Arthur was still pretty drunk, and Alfred thought he was having a dream.

"What do you want?" Arthur said, barely able to hide how drunk he still was. "If you think I'm here to kill you you're dead wrong."

"Then what are you here for?" Alfred said. Arthur took his time with the answer.

"… To get to know you," Arthur said. "For real this time." Alfred didn't really know what Arthur meant by his last sentence, but he understood the first one.

Arthur said that because he found out practically everything about Alfred from the file he had found, and he felt pretty guilty about it.

So, since Alfred thought it was all a dream, he told Arthur his deepest secrets and worst fears. Since Arthur was drunk, he told Alfred his most embarrassing secrets. Basically, in just a few hours, they felt like they had known each other for 8 years. They sat on the couch of Alfred's office.

"You know, you seem like such a loner," Alfred said, noting on how Arthur kept a collection of unicorns, and sometimes had tea with them.

"Well, that's because I work most of the time. I don't really have time for other things," Arthur said. "How about you? You spend most of your time here researching, so you're pretty lonely yourself,"

"That's not nice. I happen to not own a collection of something-"

"You have a collection of superhero action figures, and you have a collection of superhero posters," Arthur said flatly.

"Shut up! It doesn't count. Unlike your unicorn obsession, mine is sophisticated," Alfred said. Arthur gave Alfred a playful shove.

"It is not an obsession," he said. "Besides, collections don't make people lonely,"

"Well, since both of us don't want to be loners, we should go on a date sometime," Alfred said. Since this was a dream, he might as well get the courage to ask him out. Arthur raised a brow suspiciously, but blushed as well.

"Are you even a homosexual?" he asked.

"Well, I don't really know. I've never liked any woman," Alfred said. "I know you're a homosexual though,"

Arthur nodded. He had told him that he preferred men over women, but he's never really dated anyone either. "I'll think about it," he said, resembling a Japanese friend of his.

"Oh come on, Arthur! A yes or no, please?"Alfred said.

"Fine, yes," Before Alfred could celebrate, though, he added, "if you manage to overthrow the reapers,"

"Alright! Just wait and see! I have this plan…" Alfred said, but sleep overtook him and he couldn't stay awake any longer. Arthur chuckled and slipped off the American's glasses. Arthur soon followed suit and they fell into blissful sleep.

* * *

"Argh, my head hurts," Arthur thought as he woke up. He felt terrible and he couldn't remember anything from last night. He tried to move a bit, but there was something really heavy on top of him. That was Alfred.

"What the bloody-" before Arthur could mentally cuss, Alfred moved a bit closer. He had a happy face on while he was asleep, which made Arthur want to poke his cheeks. The warmth and closeness made Arthur's head spin and his stomach get butterflies. Alfred started cuddling Arthur, which added a string of mental swear words from the British man.

"Is he really asleep?" Arthur thought. While he was being pissed, he sort of enjoyed it, but he would never admit that. The cuddling continued until Alfred suddenly woke up.

"Whoa what the-" Alfred said until he locked eyes with Arthur. "Erm…" Both blonde's cheeks flared red.

"Let go of me you idiot!" Arthur said as he pushed away Alfred.

"What the hell, what are you even doing here- Wait… Fuck," Alfred said as he realized that the dream he had was real.

"Whatever, I'm leaving," Arthur said as he grabbed his coat and started going for the door.

"So… Is that offer I made still valid?" Alfred asked. He was talking about the date. Arthur turned around.

"I don't remember anything about an offer, Jones," he said darkly. It was sort of true because Arthur couldn't remember about last night, but Alfred didn't know that. With that he shut the door and left Alfred to once again drown in a pool of sorrow.

* * *

Arthur was planning to go to work, but his extreme hangover said otherwise. So, he spent the day in his house, mulling over what happened that morning.

"What offer was he talking about?" Arthur thought. He stared at his massive unicorn collection. He was quite proud of it. Little by little, he started to remember recollections of the night before. When he fully recognized last night, he thought about what Alfred said before he left.

"Oh God, what did I say to him?" Arthur thought. He pulled out something in his coat from last night, Alfred's cell phone number. Just as he was going to dial the number, his phone rang. It was the Reaper's Harvest.

"What is it?"

"Come quickly, there's an emergency! Judge Ivan is- is-" Arthur could hear the urgency in the man's voice.

"He's gone."

* * *

Alfred spent the whole day in his office, mulling over what happened that morning. He didn't even bother working on his master plan. He just laid on the couch he and Arthur slept in and stared at the ceiling. He locked the door so nobody could bother him, but that didn't stop his friends from spying on him.

"He looks pretty down," Antonio said. "Poor guy,"

"I wonder if it has anything to do with that visitor I left in my office," Roderich said.

"This is, like totally, not like Alfred. This is seriously serious news," Feliks said.

"Yeah, the only thing Alfred usually gets depressed about is that we ran out of hamburgers." Toris said.

"Ludwig, I'm really scared!" Feli said, clinging to his arm.

"Don't worry. Alfred won't stay like that for long. He has ways of cheering himself up," Ludwig said.

"Who gives a flying shit about Alfred and his issues? This is fucking useless, I say we all leave him alone and get some pizza or something- Oh my God, what is he doing?" Lovino said. Alfred was walking up to his desk and pulled on a drawer. He took out a gun.

"Don't worry you guys, it only works on- Holy shit it's liberty!" Ludwig shouted. Liberty was the second gun Alfred owned. It was the one he bought to use against humans. Using his full strength, Ludwig kicked down the door.

"Drop the gun," he ordered. Alfred didn't listen. "Drop the gun. Now"

"Dude, what are you talking about?"

"I'm not letting you commit suicide just because you're depressed,"

"What? Oh, I'm not using this on myself, I was just going to go to the training room to practice my shooting! If I used Freedom, it wouldn't even hit the dummies," Alfred said. Ludwig suddenly looked dumb. Lovino fell on the floor, laughing his ass off.

"Now we need even more funds to fix the door," Toris said. Ludwig pulled out his wallet and handed a 10 dollar bill to him. "We need a 20,"

"When I'm done in the training room, we've got to start my master plan. Roderich, do you have the code?" Alfred asked. Roderich nodded. "Okay, once I'm done, we'll all meet at my office!"

Everyone started parting ways, all except for Elizaveta. She noticed something strange about Alfred's smile. It seemed forced. Though his eyes were hidden behind his glasses, they didn't shine like they used to. He was trying to hide his sorrow, but nothing escapes Elizaveta. He had a disease, and that disease was love.

* * *

**Author's Note: Hello everyone!**

**I can't wait for the next chapter, because it's a pretty crazy one. Alfred gets his awesome plan in motion, Ivan's disappearance is not accidental, Francis shows up again... Yeah. It's probably going to be way longer too.**

**Thanks to Ember Hinote for the reminder of Alfred's weapons against reapers, I wouldn't want poor Alfie defenseless against the reapers!**


	6. Chapter 5

**I do not own the characters of Hetalia. It belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya.**

* * *

Arthur slammed the door of Reaper's Harvest open. As suspected, because of the incident, there was no one to man the shop. He flipped the sign on the door to "close" and ran into the storage room. He said the password, went down the elevator, and went into the Courtyard's crime scene.

The scene was pretty grim. There was a caution tape surrounding the entire place, people running around not knowing what to do, and a badly drawn contour drawing of Ivan passed out on the floor. It was chaotic, really. Arthur tried to maneuver his way through the yellow tape only to be blocked by a Crime scene investigator.

Well, not really, but he seemed to think he was in charge. He was probably just a reaper whose side job was being a crime investigator.

"Step aside sir," the man said. Arthur would've normally been paralyzed by the man's hostile glare, but he didn't have time for that. He took another step forward.

"Excuse me, but I have some clues that may help solve this unnerving mystery, so I'm afraid I can't listen to your orders, sir," Arthur said curtly. The man had the same stoic expression and was about to say something when he was interrupted by another man from behind him.

"Berwald! I hope you're not scaring this young man," said a voice. The voice popped up from behind the tall man named Berwald and gave a sheepish grin. "Sorry if that scared you, he's really not as bad as he looks,"

"Ah, no, it's quite fine really, he was just asking me to leave, but I've been called here by my superiors to relay some information to them. Sorry, if I sounded a bit stodgy," Arthur looked over at Berwald who gave a little nod.

"Well, ok then! Might as well get acquainted then!" said the shorter man. "My name's Tino Väinämöinen!" They exchanged a friendly handshake, and Tino nudged Berwald to introduce himself.

"Berwald Oxenstierna," he said flatly. "Tino's m'wife by the way," Arthur thought he heard wrong.

"What did you say? I thought you said Tino was your wife," No one said anything back. Berwald blushed lightly and Tino blushed heavily.

"T-That's not true Berwald, you're such a kidder," he said half-heartedly. In an attempt to change the subject he added "Well, we're really sorry. You can go in now,"

"Ah, thank you kindly." Arthur said.

"No, really, we're sorry." Tino said. He had a sad smile on his face, and Berwald stared hard at the floor. Arthur didn't understand what they meant by that, but he once again said goodbye. Now he had to confront his superiors.

* * *

*Bang*

Alfred shot at a dummy that was about five yards away. The shot went straight to its chest.

*Bang*

Another shot. It went right to its forehead.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

He aimed for the arms and legs. He heard clapping from the distance.

"You know, you look pretty weak, but you're a really good aimer," Elizaveta said.

"Hey, I'm not that weak," Alfred said defensively. "Anyways, you here to train too?"

"Not really, but I'll go a few rounds with the dummy that you just shot a couple of times," With that, she pulled out a frying pan from who-knows-where and smacked the dummy violently across the room. When she was done with it, all that was left was a pile of cloth.

"Dude, you didn't have to go all aggro on it! My bullets were in there!" Alfred whined. She just chuckled and walked up to him. She didn't like beating around the bush.

"So what's been bothering you?" she asked. It caught him off guard.

"Wha- Huh? No- nothing's bothering me…," he said. He put the gun back in his pocket.

"Your reaction just confirmed it, if that strange behavior this morning didn't. Come on, you can tell me. I won't tell the others," she said. A grin was threatening to split her face in two. Alfred looked down at the floor.

"Well, there's someone that I think like-"

"Boy or girl?" she asked. Her eyes were sparkling.

"When does that matter? Gender shouldn't affect whether I like someone or not-" Before Alfred could start ranting, she interrupted.

"So it's a guy. Continue,"

"How did you- Never mind. So I think like him, but I'm not supposed to," he said.

"What's getting in your way?" she asked. Alfred stiffened.

"It's… It's just… We can't ever be together I guess,"

"What makes you say that? Are you saying you give up?"

"No! I won't give up! That's not heroic! First, though, I have to prove something to him, and everyone else. That's it. When the time comes, he'll be mine," he said, smiling a bit at this. "Thanks for the talk, I feel a bit better. Now, let's get on with my master plan!" he started walking to his office.

"What is your master plan anyways?" Elizaveta asked.

"You'll see," he said dramatically.

* * *

"I'm here, Matthias," Arthur said. His superior turned around. A big grin appeared on his face, despite the situation. It looked forced.

"Hey, Arthur! You're here. My brother's in the other room. You're to report there for a questioning," he said. He pointed to a secluded room where usually the Seers would go to exchange information and determine whether the verdict is guilty or not. Arthur walked briskly there and shut the door.

A man with an expressionless face, a pen, and a notebook sat near the farther side of a long desk. The other chairs were pushed out of the way and only one other chair was there.

"I'm to be questioned, erm-" Arthur said.

"Lukas. Sit," he said simply. Arthur sat and twiddled his thumbs nervously. Another man entered from the door on the other side, took a chair, and sat next to Lukas. He had a strange bird perched on his shoulder.

"I'm Emil. I will be the one asking the questions here. Lukas will take the notes. Let's get started. When was the last time you saw Ivan?"

"Just yesterday," Lukas scribbled down a note and whispered to Emil.

"Ok, did you just have a random chat with him, or did he specifically want to see you?"

"I was called to the Courtyard,"

"What did he tell you?"

"To kill someone because he believed the person to be against the reapers," Arthur said, trying his best to make it as vague as possible.

"Was this person supposed to die?"

"No, not yet," Lukas wrote down all the facts down furiously, despite his still expressionless face.

"Did you go through with the order?"

"No,"

"Why?"

"Though it was an order from my superior, I couldn't go through with it because that person wasn't supposed to die yet. Besides, it hasn't been confirmed that that person is against the reapers," Arthur said.

"THIS IS BORING! WHY CAN'T WE DO SOMETHING ELSE?" A voice said. Arthur didn't know who it was. There were only 3 people in the room including himself. Unless that bird counted…

"Shut up, Mr. Puffin. You're annoying," Emil said. "Alright Arthur, you're good to go. Stay in your office until further orders," he said. Arthur walked out of the room, still not understanding what just happened.

* * *

"Okay, that's the plan you guys!" Alfred said. He had called everyone into his office to explain his awesome plan.

"Oh," Toris said.

"Fucking," Lovino added.

"Hell," Elizaveta continued.

"No," Ludwig finished.

"What? But that's our only chance we've got!" Alfred argued.

"That's true, but do we really have to-" Roderich said. "Do that?"

"I think it will be fun!" Feli said.

"See? Feli knows what he's talking about! Besides, I think a skirt would look nice on you!" Alfred said to Feli. He held up a skirt that was a little too short for its own good.

"What the hell Feliciano? I forbid you to wear those!" Ludwig said.

"Don't worry Feli, that means he totally would like, enjoy seeing you in a skirt," Feliks said. Ludwig turned scarlet red.

"Ok, to recap, we're going to put a disguise on, pose as reapers, get into the agency, get as much information as we can, then hightail it out of there?" Antonio said. Alfred nodded vigorously.

"Well, fine, but I'm not cross dressing," Lovino said. Antonio put an arm around him.

"I think you'd look pretty cute as a _ragazza_," he whispered hotly in his ear. Lovino turned as red as a tomato.

"Shut the fuck up, you bastard!"

"Well then, I'll just switch genders with Roderich then," Elizaveta said. Roderich blushed.

"I understand you fitting as a guy, but what makes you think I would look cute as a girl?"

"Do you want to stay as a guy then, while I'll be a guy too?" Elizaveta said. "We could pose as homosexuals for each other," she suggested.

"Well, I guess… That's better than being a girl," he said. "Don't put me in your weird obsession with yaoi, though,"

"I'm totally being a girl! It's going to be like so fabulous," Feliks said.

"Well, you usually dress in girl clothes anyway. Why don't you try doing something new instead?" Toris suggested.

"Well, I'll give you guys a few hours to choose your clothes then. Remember, you've got to look like somebody else so we don't blow our cover. You're dismissed!" Alfred said. They started piling through the exit door.

"I personally think he's lost it," Lovino whispered to Feli.

"Ve? But, it's a great plan!" he said.

"Well, yeah, but don't you think it's pretty out there?" A firm hand clasped Lovino's shoulder.

"That's why he's the leader. Not me. Though I'm the one who established this place, he's the one who's got the gears in motion," Ludwig said.

* * *

Arthur slammed the door to his office shut as he settled onto the couch. Francis was there, as usual, doing nothing.

"You could've cleaned the office while I was gone," Arthur mumbled to Francis. He buried his face onto his hands.

"But if I did that, it would mean you're being lazy," Francis said.

"It's not lazy if I'm busy doing other work," Arthur snapped. Before he could start hurling the insults, a cell phone beeped.

"It's mine," Francis said. He took out his phone and smiled when he saw the message he got.

"Who sent it?" Arthur asked.

"Oh, so now you're suddenly interested?" Francis said. Arthur growled.

"I'm trying to be nice and start a conversation. I'm stuck here for a while anyways,"

"Well, when you say it like that, it was Matthew," Francis said. Arthur raised a brow as he didn't recognize the name. "The poor boy you ran into yesterday. I have a date with him soon. He's my boyfriend now," Arthur flinched at the word.

"Well, good for you," he said glumly. Francis' eyebrows shot up in wonder.

"You seem in a strange sort of mood. Could it be… That you… Have a crush on me?" Francis said.

"No! That's not it you stupid Frenchman! Can't you stop thinking about yourself for once?" Arthur said. He sighed at his own outburst. "It's just… Everything's been too much lately,"

"Oh, _monsieur_, what happened?" Francis sat on the couch with him.

"I don't know. I met this person who's a total idiot, yet I can't stop thinking about that person," Arthur said.

"It seems you like that person," Francis said. "Not in the weird kind of way. Not yet anyways,"

"Well, I'm not supposed to be friends, or anything else with that person. It can't happen,"

"Why can't it? The only thing blocking your friendship is yourself. Nothing else can stop you,"

"What if I happen to be something he hates the most?"

"Then… The only thing left is to change that. Either make him like what you are, or become something that he likes. It's about compromise," Francis said. Once he finished, he got up and started for the door.

"Though, by the way you talk about that person, it seems that you like that person more than you think," Francis added before he shut the door and left Arthur to brew in his cauldron of thoughts.

"Arthur Kirkland report to the Courtyard at once, I repeat, Arthur Kirkland report to the Courtyard at once,"

* * *

Alfred looked over at his teammates. "Ok, everyone set?" He wore a big hat and a moustache and clothes that made him look like a cowboy. He took off his glasses.

Ludwig un-gelled his hair and put on a monocle and top hat. He also had a moustache that was like one thin strip above his upper lip. Feli wore schoolgirl clothes, with his long brown wig on and high heel boots. He was very unbalanced with it though.

Antonio put on a moustache and a cape on, along with his bull fighting suit that he only wears on extreme occasions. Lovino bore the same look as Feli, but without high heels. He wanted at least a bit of his manliness back.

Feliks (surprisingly) wore really baggy clothes and had a fake tattoo on his left arm. He also added fake piercings on his ears and nose. Toris wore the girly clothes, which had a lot of pink. His skirt was pretty long compared to what Feliks usually wore, and he had to (was forced) to wear makeup as well, by none other than Feliks.

Roderich wore something simple; a black leather bomber jacket over a plain white t-shirt, tight black skinny jeans, and was forced to take off his glasses. He tripped and stumbled over a lot of things due to the loss of his glasses. Elizaveta had a matching bomber jacket over a plain white t-shirt, but her jeans were blue and a bit baggier. She had a short wig over her long hair and wore Roderich's old glasses. The ones he had before he got the current ones. She took off the lens because looking through it made her head ache.

"This better be worth it," Lovino muttered. Antonio sneaked a look at Lovino, "I told you to stop the fucking staring!"

"Yeah, we should get going!" Alfred said. "Remember, if you're a girl, make sure you're voice is high pitched,"

"Ve! This is going to be fun!" Feli said, practicing his girly voice. He still had the Italian accent though.

"I- I think we should split up into groups," Toris said. Feliks squealed.

"You sound like such a totally cute girl!" He said. "I- I mean, you sound cute," He lowered his pitch and tried to refrain from the Valley girl talk.

"Wow, you sound really manly," Toris said, a blush hidden by his makeup.

"Ok, we split up into 4 groups of 2," Alfred said. Feli started counting.

"B-but, that leave's one person alone!" Feli said. Alfred nodded.

"Yeah, that's because I'll be going alone," he said.

"You're part of the group, too! Don't go excluding yourself!" Elizaveta said. Alfred sighed.

"Well partner, I'm the hero. These things I gotta do, okay?" Alfred said. He had the cowboy accent on.

"Let him. There'll be more ground to cover that way," Ludwig said.

"Okay then, let's go, shall we?" Roderich said.

"Yes. Let the plan: Infiltrate and Pilfer commence! Partner!" Alfred said.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Whew. That took me a while. I just loved Alfred's plan. It's genius.**

**Yay, I featured the Nordics! This is not the only one they'll be in though.**

**I think next chapter will include a lot of fail cowboy accents from Alfred (an extreme amount of "Partner" and "I reckon")**

**This chapter was fun to write. And no, I do not have a cross-dressing addiction.**


	7. Chapter 6

**All characters of Hetalia belong to Hidekaz Himaruya. I only own the plot.**

* * *

"So… You guys are newly recruited reapers?" Heracles asked slowly. He scratched his head. He didn't remember whether there was news sent on new reapers, and he certainly did not remember newly recruited reapers to look and act this strange.

"You bet yer own cow that we're the new reapers, partner!" Alfred said joyfully. He looked like he was enjoying himself. Everyone else didn't.

"Um… Well, okay? Do you guys… Know the password?" Heracles said.

"Yep! It's Greed, right?" Alfred said.

"Yeah… I guess… You guys can go," Heracles said. He lifted a lazy finger to the storage room.

"What? Why are we goin' in there?" Alfred asked.

"Um… To get to headquarters… I guess," he said. "Just say the password in there… and an elevator will open… Then press -5…" Heracles said. He never knew teaching young recruits would be so hard.

"Ok then!" Alfred said, marching gleefully into the room. The others followed. They shut the door.

"You guys, we'll split up once the elevator sends us to floor -5. We'll have no communication thereafter so the only thing I'll say is we'll meet back here in 30 minutes. Good luck, and don't get caught," Alfred said. "Partner," Lovino groaned.

"Greed," he said. The walls slid open to reveal an elevator. "Wow! So cool!" he said. With that, they entered the elevator, and their plan began.

* * *

"You wanted to see me?" Arthur said as he stormed into the Courtyard. A man, one of the seers, had a grim scowl on his face.

"Yes. It seems we've been tricked," he said. He handed Arthur the clipboard he remembered belonged to Lukas, the man who interviewed him, along with Emil. "Tino, Berwald, Matthias, Emil, and Lukas have also just disappeared. They must be in cahoots with the enemy."

"Shit," Arthur cursed, "What are we supposed to do about it?"

"You are going to track them down," he said. Arthur sighed.

* * *

Alfred walked around aimlessly, checking out random rooms which were either storage rooms or offices.

"Man, they should have a map for this," Alfred thought. As he kept walking though, he saw a man running across the room. The man crashed into each Alfred unceremoniously as they toppled onto the floor.

"Careful partner," he said. The man groaned since he dropped a pile of papers. Deciding to be both a cowboy _and_ a hero, Alfred helped collect all the papers. The man nodded and ran off, not even saying a thank you.

"He nodded though," he thought. As he stood up, he realized that the man forgot one sole piece of paper. Alfred sat on it while he was helping, so he didn't notice it himself. He picked it up and was going to try to give it back, until he took a glance at the paper's contents.

"Oh my God," he said. The note was scribbled in a red shade that might have looked like blood.

Humans; they always make

and make reality messed up.

What is supposed to be

the reality.

I will kill humans.

It said. Alfred pocketed it and continued, not knowing what to make of it. But he was sure as hell hoping he didn't have to run into the person who wants to kill him.

* * *

Arthur stomped back into his office, the clipboard in his hands and a scowl on his face. He was confused as hell and he didn't want to be. The note was scribbled in blue.

Reapers are the same as

mistakes. I will change that

Then they wish this wouldn't be

A fact, this is,

I will kill Reapers.

It said. He sighed and ruffled his hair. "They didn't look like bad people though," he thought.

"Tino also apologized for no apparent reason. He might have been referring to what they probably did. So, it must be forced? But if it were forced, then the only person who could manage to do that is-"

The door slammed open and Francis joyfully called out, "We have new recruits, _mon ange_!"

"I already told you, Reapers are nothing like angels. Besides, who are the new recruits? I've never gotten any warning about this," he said. He stood up and walked to the door.

"Well, it's always nice to have a surprise," Francis said. He pointed at two people who were next to him, a young schoolgirl and a… Man with a top hat and monocle. He nodded courteously and the girl just said, "Ve!"

"So, uh, I'm Arthur Kirkland. Welcome to the company," he said, shaking both their hands. The man gave his hand a firm grip.

"You should show them around," Francis said, giving a smirk.

"You should stop pushing your job to other people," Arthur said, returning the Frenchman's smirk with a sneer. He sighed.

"Fine, come. I will show you around," Francis said, leaving Arthur forgetting what he was just about to figure out.

* * *

Alfred turned a corner and came face to face with a large, ominous door. On the top, written in bold faced letters, was _Et in cubiculum Hora specula_.

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Alfred thought as he pushed open the doors.

The room was very dark, but Alfred could see clearly what was in the room. Endless aisles were stacked far and wide with hourglasses. Each one was labeled with a name, and they were separated in alphabetical order.

"So, they have one with my name on it?" Alfred said as he maneuvered to the J aisle. He picked one between one named Amy and Bob Jones. The one that had Alfred's name on it was blurred from the inside. He couldn't tell how far the glass was filled.

"Hm… They must not allow the person to know how much time they have left," Alfred thought. He went to look for his friend's instead. He found Ludwig, Toris, Feliks, Antonio, Roderich, Elizaveta, and Lovino, but when he went to check Feli's, it was empty.

"What the-"

"Whatcha doing here?" a voice said. Alfred spun around and saw a man with pale hair and red eyes. "This is for harvesters only,"

"Oh, sorry, I'm pretty new here, partner, so-"

"Ah, you're one of those newcomers, eh? Awesome. I'm Gilbert Beilshmidt, nice to meet you," he smirked and shook the cowboy's hand. Alfred thought the last name sounded a bit too familiar.

"Thanks, partner. I happened to just bump into this room, and I wanted to take a gander inside it, hope you don't mind," Alfred said. Gilbert just laughed.

"Dude, I'm not the police. I don't mind at all. In fact, I like to chill here sometimes. It's pretty awesome," he said.

"Oh, so do you know why this ticker here is the odd one out?" Alfred said. He pointed at Feli's and Gilbert walked closer. His eyes widened.

"That means the person's supposed to be dead. I guess we haven't sent anyone to take that person's soul yet," Gilbert said. Alfred got a lump in his throat. "Strange though, it was like that for 5 years now. Well, I guess I'll just have to tell Arthur to-"

"How about I take care of it for you fellers? I want to try this," Alfred said.

"Hum… Ok, but I'm not sure. If this person eluded death for a long time, I'd have to say he's pretty strong," Gilbert said. "Not that I think you're weak,"

"R-Really?" Alfred said. He knew Feli was not strong, so how has he managed to elude Death? The mystery scared him. He paled a little.

"I have a question, partner. If someone were to say, destroy the hourglasses, what would happen? Partner?" Gilbert scratched his forehead.

"From what I know, it won't injure the person. It just cuts off our knowledge of whether or not we know when that person dies," he said.

"Well, anyways, I'll see you around I guess. You're pretty awesome," Gilbert said as he walked to another corridor, leaving Alfred as pale as a ghost.

* * *

Francis started guiding Ludwig and Feliciano around the offices, stopping to point out some important places or to flirt with the other reapers. Ludwig vigorously took notes on every single detail Francis pointed out while Feli remained unusually quiet and clung to Ludwig's arm. Francis was wondering something, so he decided to stop and ask them.

"Are you two dating?" Francis suddenly said, spinning around to stare at the now red faced couple.

"W-What- Why do you ask?" Ludwig said, his composure stiffening with every word.

"Just cause. You two seem like it, but I didn't want to assume," Francis said.

"O-of course we-" Ludwig started to say, but Feli cut him off.

"We are, ve! I love him as much as I love pasta!" he said confidently, a bold blush on his cheeks. Ludwig's cheeks got even more painfully red.

"Y-yeah… We are," he said, looking down onto the floor, embarrassed as hell, but still glad that Feliciano decided to take another step in their relationship. They never said they were together until now.

"Ah, you two make such a cute couple! Now let's continue our tour, we're almost done," Francis said. They stopped in front of a tall door.

"This is the _Cubiculum de animae_, or the chamber of the soul," Francis said. "We drop off the souls that were taken in that room. Death will then take them in his own time," Feli raised his hand for a question.

"When does Death take them?"

"Ah, in his own time. He has no specific schedule," Feli raised his hand again.

"How does dropping off the soul work?" Feli said. Francis made a gesture to the door.

"Would you like to go in and find out?" They nodded. He pushed open the door.

There weren't much people, but there were a lot of souls placed around the room. They were encased in bottles and some moved, while others were still. Each one was different colors, and they looked like what ghosts would look like, if they were real. The room itself was pretty simple, no other doors except the entrance, no windows, and no light. The only way the room was so lit up was because the souls cast their own eerie glow.

"Well, we just place the souls we have in their designated spots, and then let Death take them,"

"Hm… Funny… It's been a week or two. Death should have taken them by now," Francis said. Ludwig scribbled more furiously into his notepad, and Feli started paling a bit. He gripped Ludwig's arm a bit tighter. Ludwig noticed and slowed his writing down a bit.

"I see, so can we go now, ve?"

"Oh, ok," Francis said. "This place gives me the creeps too,"

* * *

Arthur still couldn't figure out anything so he decided to take a refreshing walk around headquarters to clear his head. No less than one foot from his office though, he bumped into Alfred.

"Ah, watch where you're going," Arthur muttered half-heartedly. He looked up at the cowboy, whose eyes were wide open. Arthur couldn't help but admire the man's bright blue eyes.

"I uh, erm, sorry partner I wasn't payin' attention," Alfred said. He felt like he was sweating buckets and his heart was beating really fast.

"I wasn't either, so I apologize as well," Arthur said. He couldn't help but think that this person was a bit too familiar. They stood in awkward silence for a few moments. Arthur couldn't take it, so he decided to break the ice. "I haven't seen you here before. Are you a new recruit?"

"Ah! Oh, yep, I am," Alfred said. He fidgeted with his collar that was on a bit too tight.

"Well then, pleased to meet you. I'm Arthur Kirkland," he said, extending his hand to shake the cowboy's.

"I'm… America Jones, nice to meet ya!" he said. Alfred mentally slapped himself. He couldn't even think straight in front of Arthur!

"Oh. I don't have anything better to do, so do you want to walk with me?" Arthur said. He wanted to get to know this America Jones. Alfred's heart was screaming yes, but he had to return to his team mates, since his thirty minutes were almost over. What kind of hero would abandon his friends?

"No, I can't. I'm sorry. I've got to herd some cows and other things," Alfred said. The metaphor wasn't exactly the best, but he really needed to get away from Arthur.

When Alfred came back, everyone was already there.

"Let's go to the office to discuss this," Alfred ordered, his voice no longer having that familiar cowboy lilt to it. Lovino sighed in relief. "Partner,"

"Fuck," Lovino said. When they returned to their office, everyone stripped off their disguises and went to Alfred's office to exchange information.

"Ok, so let's start with you two," Alfred said, pointing at Ludwig and Feli. Ludwig brought out his notes.

"Well, we got our information through a tour hosted by a man named Francis Bonnefoy. He showed us many rooms that were, no doubt, written in Latin. There were rooms for holding souls, holding thousands of dossiers, making scythes, weaponry, and many others. There were also a strange amount of storage closets. Other than showing us rooms, he introduced us to other Reapers," Ludwig said. Alfred smiled.

"Ok, now it's you two," Alfred said. He pointed towards Antonio and Lovino.

"Oh well, we got the bearings of the entire -5th floor, and Lovino here drew us a map," Antonio said. Lovino grumbled and pulled out a small folded piece of paper. Every time he unfolded it, it got twice as big, and when he finished, the entire paper was about the size of the coffee table. Everyone gathered around it.

"Wow, you draw as well as Feli!" Toris said. Lovino grumbled and got a bit redder.

"Ah, you missed a few room names over there, I'll write them in," Ludwig said, taking out a pen to write.

"Ok, so once we entered the -5th floor, we were right in front of where all the Reaper's offices were. Going to the right would be the weapons and armor rooms. Forward would be the informatory rooms, like the dossiers and others. Going left, well… We didn't have time to check that out," Antonio said.

"Wow, the whole floor looks like a totally weird plus sign," Feliks said.

"It's not a plus sign. It's a cross," Roderich said.

"Ok then, your turn," Alfred said to Roderich and Elizaveta.

"Well, we found out there are more than just Reapers working there. There are Harvesters, people who keep track of who dies and who doesn't. Fakelos would record information of every single person alive. There are also Seers, but they are just like Fakelos, except more controlled," Roderich said. While Roderich was explaining stuff in great detail, Elizaveta started whispering to Alfred.

"That Arthur guy we brought into the building yesterday was a reaper," Elizaveta whispered. Alfred tried to be genuinely surprised.

"Oh? Wow, he didn't look like he could be a Reaper," he said. Roderich snapped his head at the two.

"I suggest you two stop chatting," he said, annoyed that they weren't listening.

"Ok then, I guess it is Toris and Feliks' turn," Alfred said.

"Well, we went to the informatory rooms, and they were so expansive! They were all organized into alphabetical order. We went to look for your names, and we found out a lot of interesting things about you guys!" Toris said.

"Yeah, like, Roderich always saves his clothes, which is totally disturbing, Elizaveta has a collection of frying pans hung up on the wall of her house, Ludwig has a bunch of creepy magazines that have-"

"That's enough!" Ludwig said.

"Ok guys, I guess this meeting's over!" Alfred said.

"Wait just a fucking second. You haven't gone yet," Lovino said.

"Yeah, it's not really important…"

"Lies. Hurry up and talk," Lovino said. Alfred gulped.

"Well, I went to the left rooms, and there's a specific room in there that contains a bunch of hourglasses. It's like what the Harvester's use to tell when someone's supposed to die. They are all alphabetically ordered too. I also found out that when you look at your own hourglass, you can't tell how much time you have left," Alfred said.

"Now that's more like it!" Ludwig said. "Discussion is over," he said.

"Wait," Alfred said. "Ludwig and Feli stay. I have something to ask you,"

* * *

**Author's Notes: Hello again! I finally finished this. **

**Sorry about the wait, I was actually really busy with a bunch of chores that I've been neglecting, and I didn't have a lot of time to write. I like to think that part of my apology is the chapter itself, so I hope you enjoyed it.**

**Thanks to you guys, I got 1,000 view for this story! Thank you so much! This is a really big milestone for me, even though I'm pretty sure there's billions of people in the world.**


	8. Chapter 7

**The characters belong to Hidekaz Himaruya. I own only the plot.**

* * *

"What is it you want to talk about?" Ludwig said. He shut the door and sat next to Feli on the couch. Alfred still stood up.

"When I went to the room with hourglasses, I met a man named Gilbert Beilshmidt. I also found Feli's hourglass, which was empty. Tell me Ludwig, why did you start this company?" Alfred said. The room had an awkward air. Ludwig stared hard at the ground.

"Gilbert Beilshmidt was my brother, and also used to be my Harvester. I used to be a reaper," he said.

"A long time ago, I suffered from cholera, ve. It was so horrible, I felt so sick. I was about to die," Feli said.

"Yes, I was supposed to kill him, but I couldn't. I couldn't do it," Ludwig said.

"So, he offered me a deal. If I stayed with him forever, he would not kill me and I would live longer," Feli said.

"Gilbert would not approve. He always said that he liked Feli as well, but he said everyone had their time. Still, he didn't tell anyone of my disappearance and the violating of the rules,"

"Ludwig made this because I was so mad at the reapers, and I hated them for not even a liable reason," Feli said.

"Yes, it was made for our selfish desires," Ludwig said. "We took advantage of you guys,"

"That's not true," Alfred said. The couple looked up at him. "I, the hero, and this organization will destroy the Reaper's agency. The agency only. Not anyone else. I think Death made this as a sick excuse to be lazy,"

"You… Aren't you mad at us though?" Feli said. Alfred shook his head.

"It was all in the past. You've learned your lesson. I think this agency is proof enough," Alfred said.

"Th-Thanks," Ludwig said. "Are you going to tell everyone else?"

"Dude, I'm not a snitch. Anyways, you guys can tell them in your own time," Alfred said. "Hey, I also found something, but I was a bit too afraid to show the rest of the guys," He handed the two the piece of paper the man he bumped into dropped.

"What is this?" Ludwig said. Feli paled a bit.

"I bumped into someone and they dropped it," Alfred said.

"Were they a Reaper?" Feli said.

"No, I don't think so. It was a man with long hair though. I almost thought it was a girl,"

"That's strange. If it was a Reaper though, they might just be waging war against humans," Ludwig said.

"I hope it isn't the case though," Feli said.

"Well, I don't know what to do with it," Alfred said. Suddenly, an idea sparked into his mind.

"Organize everyone's notes. Compile it into something. I have another plan,"

"Oh? What is it, ve? You have a strange look in your eyes," Feli said.

"You'll see. I'm going home to get ready. Just tell everyone else it's going to be big. It will be called Plan: Sabotage. It starts tomorrow," Alfred said. With that, he ran out of the office in pure excitement.

"Well, I'm going to ask everyone about this note," Feli said, holding the red stained paper.

"Ok, I'll organize everyone's notes," Ludwig said.

* * *

"The note wasn't written grammatically correct, so it could be a kid, a foreigner, or someone with bad grammar," Arthur thought. "Tino apologized for some reason… Emil had a strange pet… WHAT THE BLOODY HELL THIS IS TOO CONFUSING!"

Arthur slammed his head onto the desk… again. Francis was settled on couch.

"What is the problem, _monsieur_?"

"I can't figure this out," Arthur muttered. He would've normally uttered a sarcastic reply, but he was so out of it. Lately he's been like that. He passed Francis the blue stained note.

"Is this for the case?"

"Yes,"

"If I wrote this, I would've been waging war against reapers," he said. Arthur's eyebrows shot up.

"Shit. That must be it!" he said. He rushed out the door. "It's time to end this little game,"

"What game?" Francis asked. Arthur popped his head back in.

"I'll have him cornered like a king in chess," he snarled, an evil look in his eyes.

"Oh no," Francis thought. "That's his perverted face,"

Tomorrow would be the day that was fated to come.

* * *

**Author's Notes: The shortness is intentional. I decided to make this chapter a bit of a transition. So, should I count this as even a chapter?**

**I chose to give Italy cholera because there used to be an epidemic in Italy. I guess it's a bit of a historical reference?**

**The next chapter is going to be my new favorite. I have it all planned out. Muahahahahahaha...**


	9. Chapter 8

**Himaruya Hidekaz owns the characters. I only own the plot.**

* * *

The next day...

"Ok guys, I have the perfect plan," Alfred said. He gathered everyone for another meeting. He had his disguise on and his hands were behind his back.

"What is it?" Roderich said. Alfred grinned like a maniac and held up 8 bombs.

"Oh shit! He's gone mad, everyone fucking restrain him!" Lovino said. He lunged at Alfred.

"Dude, no don't touch me!" Alfred said. "These bombs are for my plan,"

"Yeah, your plan for world domination," Lovino muttered as Antonio pulled him back.

"Anyways, I'm going to plant these bombs in the Hourglass room and you guys will detonate them on my call," Alfred said. He handed each one of them a bomb detonator button.

"What? Is that safe? I mean, for all we know, we could totally end up killing a bunch of innocent people," Feliks said.

"Yeah, don't worry. I asked someone during our heist. It's safe. Hourglasses just indicate the time the person has left. It'll be like we're sending them a signal," Alfred said.

"So, when are we supposed to click the button?" Ludwig said.

"Dude, I told you, I'm going to call you guys," Alfred said. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I'm going to go this time. Just me," Alfred said.

"What?" Elizaveta said.

"Yeah, only I'll go. It'll be less suspicious, and besides, I'm the hero," Alfred said. There were a few grumbles, but nobody tried contradicting him.

"Fine, we all detonate at the same time?" Antonio said.

"Yep, but I have to make sure nobody is in the Hourglass room when I do this, so it might take a while," Alfred said. He remembered Gilbert liked hanging out there, so he didn't want to risk anything.

"Ah, also, before you go," Roderich said, "I really think the Reapers are up to something with that note you found, so be a lot more careful,"

"Yeah, wouldn't want the hero dead after all," Elizaveta said.

"Don't worry, I'm a hero. They can't die," Alfred said as he left the office.

"Oh if only," Ludwig said once Alfred left.

* * *

Arthur sprinted across the offices, his hands filled with an endless amount of flyers. He stuck them everywhere he went and handed one to every person he saw. When he was done he went back to his office to rest. Francis, as usual, was there being… Francis.

"Arthur, what is that?" Francis said, not even bothering to greet the Brit. He pointed to a lone flyer still in Arthur's back pocket.

"Ah, almost forgot to give one to you," Arthur said. He handed it to the Frenchman, humming a seemingly familiar tune to himself. La la lala la- Lalalala la la…

"You're in a strange mood today," Francis said as he plucked the flyer and inspected it. "Are you serious? There's an organization out for the Reapers?" he said, after reading the contents.

"Yes. I plan on fully exposing those vermin once and for all," Arthur said, a big smirk on his face.

"Is this supposed to be your great plan?" Francis asked. If it was any more possible, Arthur's face lit up even more.

"That's not even the half of it! The rest of my plan will make that American think twice about doubting my power-" Arthur started to say, before he was cut off with a couple of knocks from the door. "Excuse me, I have to go," He rushed out of the door and Francis sighed.

"I really don't get you sometimes," he said to himself.

* * *

Alfred was met by a Japanese man the moment he went inside Reaper's Harvest.

"Hello," said Kiku, giving a small polite bow.

"Ah, howdy partner," he said back, tipping his hat in politeness.

"Well, you must be that new recruit I heard about from Heracles. I'm Honda Kiku," Kiku said.

"Oh, was he the Greek man who I met yesterday? He seems like a pretty cool man, partner. Oh, and I'm America Jones, partner,"

"Yes. The password for this week is Lust, so go right in sir," Kiku said. Alfred remained planted to the spot.

"Are all your passwords like that?" Alfred asked. Kiku tilted his head a bit. "You know, like sin-related?"

"Ah, no. Death's interests change from time to time. He makes the passwords you see. I guess he just seems to like this approach," Kiku said. Alfred nodded.

"Ok then. Thanks partner. See you some other time," He left the nice Japanese man and went inside the storage room. When he stepped out of the elevator, he went straight for the Hourglass room. His footsteps were brisk and his strides were long. The moment he opened the door, he was greeted by Gilbert.

"Oh, hey Gilbert," Alfred said. Gilbert still stood there, blocking his way.

"Did you do it?" Gilbert said. His hands were crossed and he tapped his foot impatiently.

"Do what?"

"Kill that Feliciano Vargas," Gilbert said. He was tense and his hands were clenched tightly.

"Oh… I guess I forgot. Hehe, sorry," Alfred said. Gilbert sighed and felt a bit relieved. He waved Alfred in and they walked inside.

"If you did try to kill him though, my brother would never let you," Gilbert muttered under his breath. Unfortunately, Alfred heard him.

"Yeah, he's a scary guy," Alfred answered, until he realized he wasn't supposed to know Gilbert's brother. "Whoops,"

"You know Ludwig?" Gilbert didn't know whether to be happy or pissed off.

"Well… Yes, but I knew him before you," Alfred said.

"Oh. So what are you doing here?" Gilbert asked.

"Well, it has something to do with your brother… and that thing he made…"

"What the hell? You're part of that group? Did you just join to- Oh _mien gott_, how come it didn't even cross my mind?" Gilbert said. It was good that nobody else was in the room, otherwise everyone would have heard Gilbert's shouts.

"Yes, but I'm not here to destroy you guys. Just the agency itself," Alfred said.

"Wow, just great! That's not bad at all," Gilbert said sarcastically. Alfred took this literally.

"Yeah, so if you could just make sure no one else comes in here while I plant these bombs then we're all set!" Alfred said. He started going for one aisle, but Gilbert blocked his path.

"What? You're really going to do that? The whole agency already knows there's an organization out for us, so you shouldn't risk it!" Alfred stopped.

"They know? How? We made sure to be all ninja and stuff," Alfred said. Gilbert pulled a flyer out of his pocket and handed it to him. "Arthur made a bunch of flyers and handed it to all of us-" Gilbert started to say, but when he saw Alfred looking hurt he stopped.

"That Brit. He wants to get in my way, so be it," Alfred said. His hurt expression immediately changed to that of a new resolve. "I'm not letting him get away from that date he promised me!" Gilbert was shocked.

"He promised to go on a date with you?" Gilbert said. On one side, he was glad Arthur was being more social, and on another he was bewildered that he would make such a deal with someone who's out to get him.

"Well, yeah. Only if I destroy this organization, though. So, please, let me through," Alfred said. Gilbert still did not budge. "Come on. For both Feli and Ludwig," Gilbert reconsidered.

"Fine. I'll help. Just so you know, you better make sure your group is awesome enough to handle what might happen after this," Gilbert said. Alfred grinned.

"Don't worry. I'm a hero," Alfred said. "Oh, and I'm not really a cowboy. My name's Alfred,"

"Just hurry up," Gilbert said with an idiotic grin on his face.

* * *

"Yes?" Arthur said as he opened the door. It was Heracles.

"About that flyer you gave us… Do you know anyone who could be part of the agency?" he said.

"No, not very sure," Arthur lied.

"Oh, ok… Where did you get the… Information?" he said.

"Before Ivan disappeared, he told me about it," Arthur said. Heracles tensed up at the name.

"He must… Trust you if he told you his name…" he said suspiciously. Arthur's eyebrows shot up.

"Well, I guess that could be true, but I've never even talked to him up until the day before his disappearance…" Arthur said. He never contemplated that fact before. Heracles yawned.

"Well, don't worry… I know you're not up to anything strange… I trust you. Anyways… That's all I needed… Thanks," he said as he walked slowly away.

"You're welcome," Arthur said. He needed some time to contemplate why Ivan trusted him so much. "I need a walk,"

* * *

"Okay, I'm all done," Alfred said. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and bounded towards Gilbert.

"Took you long enough," Gilbert said. "I hope this works,"

"Don't worry," Alfred said. "I got this. I'm a hero,"

"Yeah, and I'm not awesome," Gilbert said sarcastically.

"Well, anyways, you have to get out soon, I left a message for the guys to detonate the bombs. They didn't answer though," Alfred said.

"Okay, good luck," Gilbert said, giving Alfred a pat in the back. "...Tell Ludwig I said hi... and tell him I'm sorry,"

Alfred frowned, "He doesn't blame you for that you know,"

"I still feel bad though. Just tell him I said that, okay?"

"Fine. Someday, we'll go visit a bar and I'll drag Ludwig along all right?" Alfred said as he walked out the door. Gilbert chuckled.

"Yes, the one that sells the German beer," Gilbert said. He walked the opposite direction Alfred was going.

"Well, bye," Alfred said as he started to go to the elevator. He watched Gilbert's back until it faded. Unfortunately for him, watching Gil's back meant not watching where he was going.

"Ouch! Watch where you're going," Arthur said. He stumbled and looked up at the man. When he realized it was that "America Jones", he felt himself get rigid. Alfred was in no better condition. His hands shook feverishly and he averted his eyes from the Brit.

"S-Sorry... Arthur, right?" Alfred said. He returned to his cowboy accent, remembering his disguise was still on.

"Yes, America," Arthur said. 'America' was lined with venom. Arthur looked at him with dagger-like eyes. "Come with me, we need to talk,"

"Wh- What? I mean-" Alfred stuttered. Arthur ignored the man's complaints and dragged him into one storage closet that was conveniently near them. He shoved Alfred in and locked the door.

They were now alone. In a closet. Enclosed in a small space.

"You're Alfred, aren't you?" Arthur said, a small hint of hope in his voice.

"How... How did you find out?" Alfred said. Arthur scoffed.

"Idiot! Your name was the giveaway. 'America'? I know you are a big fan of America, and you told me that yourself!" Arthur said. He moved closer to continue arguing with the American.

"What? That sucks. I thought my disguise was pretty good," Alfred said. Arthur smirked and threw the silly cowboy hat off.

"It wasn't. Cowboys were American weren't they? Even if you held up a sign that said 'I'm Alfred F. Jones and I'm here to destroy Reapers', the disguise you're wearing would still be worse!" Arthur said. He was on a roll, so he moved a bit closer to glare up at the taller man. He didn't notice the American's cheeks get redder.

"Ha! I even told everyone about your secret little organization. It's not a secret anymore!" Arthur said. Alfred looked distraught.

"Yeah, I found out about that. Dude, why did you do that? I thought we had a thing going!" Alfred said. Arthur frowned.

"A thing? You never told me I shouldn't tell anybody. Besides, this is war. We're on different sides. We're supposed to back stab each other someday," Arthur said.

"This may be war, but we're friends!" Alfred said. Arthur growled.

"Just friends?" Arthur muttered under his breath. Alfred caught the words and stared into the Brit's eyes.

"Why? Do you want to...?" Alfred said and moved closer, not bothering to finish the sentence. Arthur turned red and tried to back away but Alfred grabbed his hand- firmly yet gently- and pushed his back against the wall.

"Bloody hell, let me go," Arthur said, still trying to squirm away. It was a half-hearted attempt.

"Why should I?" Alfred said.

"Because we're enemies and-mph," Arthur said. Before he could finish that sentence, Alfred swooped in to kiss him. It was a soft, sweet and gentle kiss. Arthur couldn't do anything but just stand in shock.

"That's not a good reason," Alfred said. They stopped to stare at each other, each admiring the blue sky and green ocean in each other's eyes. Alfred kissed the Brit a second time, and this time he kissed back. Arthur's hands wrapped around Alfred's neck and pulled him in closer. Alfred's hands combed through Arthur's soft blonde hair and softly tugged on some stray strands of hair. Alfred's tongue was roaming around Arthur's mouth, and Arthur couldn't help but make a small moan.

"Mmh... Alfred," Arthur said. They were both panting, red, and sweaty even though they only kissed two times. Alfred hugged the shorter man and pulled in close to nibble on his ear. Arthur moved closer to Alfred's lips and kissed him again.

*BOOOOM*

Alfred went stiff, and Arthur stopped.

"What was that?" Arthur said. Alfred chuckled weakly.

"Heheh... That reminds me. I have to go!" he said, running out the closet, not bothering to get his hat back. He made a break for the elevator and left as fast as the explosion had appeared.

Arthur looked outside and saw a broken hourglass roll to his feet. He immediately realized what happened.

"ALLLLFFREEDDD!"

* * *

**Author's Notes: ****I couldn't sleep so I decided to do something with my time and write this chapter.**  


**I feel a bit pervy even though they didn't even do anything THAT dirty. Sorry, it's my first time writing something like that, so if it's bad, I apologize.**

**I like how it ended, don't you? Interruptions be interrupting.**


	10. Chapter 9 and Important Notice

**Hidekaz Himaruya owns the characters. I only own the plot.**

* * *

By now a whole crowd surrounded the explosion site, and Arthur was downright pissed.

"It looks bad _monsieur_, how should we handle this?" Francis asked. Arthur grit his teeth while he answered.

"We should do something about it instead of standing here and blithering like idiots," Arthur muttered as he stared at the crowd. People were interviewing people and nobody was paying attention to the real message being conveyed. _This is war._

"Ah, I would do that, but it seems like it is a job suited only for you," Francis said. Arthur grit his teeth harder and decided to actually listen to Francis' word of advice. He stepped into the middle of the crowd and decided to get their attention.

"Listen up! I am Arthur Kirkland and I speak for the incident that has happened here," Arthur said. Everyone's voices hushed and his voice rang clear and true. "I know who did this, and I know why. It was our enemy! They did this because they wanted to give us one message, and one message only. This is war," A few people cheered. Some people booed. Either way, Arthur continued.

"Are we just going to let them have their way? What they did here is unacceptable, and they will pay the price," Arthur said. With every word, his volume became louder and louder. "We are Reapers. Harvesters. Fakelo. Even Seers. All of us here must work together and destroy the organization that threatens our power. Who's with me?" By now, everybody was cheering wildly and Arthur had a proud smirk on his face, but he couldn't help feeling that there was something wrong with all of this.

* * *

"Guys, what took you so long with the bomb detonating, what were you doing?" Alfred said, mad mostly because he ended up doing _that_ with Arthur. If they detonated it at the right time he wouldn't have had to-

"Sorry, there was a mild disturbance of some sorts," Ludwig said. Feli spoke up as well.

"We got word that someone leaked information about our whereabouts, and we might be starting a war," Feli said, a worried expression on his face.

"A war?" Alfred said. That sounded pretty bad. "But still! You guys could've still detonated the bombs at the right time!"

"Is that really important now?" Roderich said, "We should focus on the war, just move on and-"

"Fine, what should we do," Alfred said bitterly, throwing himself on the couch. Everybody was staring at him now as he pouted and crossed his arms. Alfred was never like this.

"Um… Ok then, well, I'm sure there's going to be an attack soon so we should plan," Ludwig said, feeling the tension in the air. It was suffocating. Lovino scoffed.

"Just do what I would do. Build a fucking barrier and hide like there's no tomorrow," Lovino said. Alfred shot up from his slumped position, scaring the crap out of mostly everyone.

"That's it! Thanks Lovino, that was a great idea!" Alfred said. Lovino's eyebrows shot up.

"It was? I- I mean, of course. I fucking thought of it that's why," Lovino said. Antonio smiled and patted his head.

"So what exactly are we going to do?" Elizaveta said, speaking for almost everyone in the room.

"We're going to first get rations, and then we'll barricade everything, like a fort!" Alfred said. He was really eager about this. In fact, a bit too eager.

* * *

"We're going to infiltrate their base tomorrow night," Arthur said to Francis, who was at his usual spot on the couch.

"Ah, just us two? In the middle of the night?" Francis said, letting a stream of "ohonhon's" flow from his mouth.

"Bloody pervert, I don't mean like that. We're just going to break in and steal any information they may have… and possibly vandalize and abuse a certain man's office…" Arthur said. He grinned devilishly and Francis scooted farther from him.

"It seems like you hold a grudge with one of the members," Francis said. Arthur scowled.

"Yes I do. One of them has managed to get on the list, and nobody's ever been in my list before," Arthur said, and added after reconsideration, "Except for maybe you."

"So he's in the list of people's numbers you want?" Francis said, expecting to be beaten up. Instead, Arthur turned red.

"N-No! I don't like him! He's annoying, has an obsession with heroes, eats way too many burgers, and has an annoyingly chubby face that I just want to tou- slap! I meant slap!" Arthur said hurriedly. Francis' jaw dropped. Was Arthur-? Francis went from jaw-dropped to smirking.

"I can't believe you Arthur. Liking someone who's our enemy?" Francis said. Arthur turned even redder and said nothing. Francis thought he took it too far. Just when he was about to apologize though, Arthur interrupted him.

"Just… Just don't tell anybody, okay?" Arthur said. Francis' jaw dropped again. Arthur? Being… Nice? He didn't even add a threat or anything!

"Deal, but when we infiltrate their base, you _must_ show me where his office is!" Francis said. Arthur quickly nodded, but cursed himself for what happened.

* * *

**Author's Note: Sorry it was so short guys, but I HAD to get something posted today!**

**You see, I'm leaving for a road trip to Canada on Monday, which is tomorrow. I might bring my laptop, but the most I can do is just work on chapters through Word Documents. I'll be back next week, so don't expect anything new to come until then. If I do manage to post something, then congratulations to me. Hope Matthew made some pancakes on my arrival XD!**

**Anyways, what did you think of the chapter? Too short (I know it is)? Too long (How is that possible)? Constructive criticism is not allowed. It is encouraged!**


	11. Chapter 10

**Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya. I own only the plot.**

* * *

Alfred walked happily inside the office, his hands full with canned food and packs of soda.

"Guys, I got the food!" he said, setting the bags carefully on the table. Ludwig came out from his office pushing a table to the door Alfred just entered from.

"Ah, good. Should we reinforce the door more?" Ludwig said, pointing towards the door he just blockaded. Alfred hummed as he walked closer to inspect.

"Yeah, the top is exposed," Alfred said, trying his best to sound sophisticated. Ludwig turned red, and decided to humor himself.

"Ah, but if the top is exposed, wouldn't it be more appealing?" Ludwig asked. Alfred raised a brow.

"Yeah, but we can't just leave it like that. We might attract more attention than we need," he said. Alfred realized what Ludwig meant right after he finished the sentence. He covered his mouth. "Shit, you got me,"

"That was funny, Alfred. Don't worry about it too much, you haven't been relaxing enough. I'll go get more things to put in front of the door," Ludwig said, giving a soft pat on Alfred's back. He soon left the hall all to Alfred.

"Am I really not relaxing?" Alfred muttered to no one in particular. "No, of course not! I'm the hero!" Alfred said, getting a glare from Roderich who happened to pop up in that moment.

"Don't talk to yourself. It makes you look crazier than you actually are," Roderich said with an annoyed tone. He wasn't really annoyed. He was just worried for Alfred, who was now currently pouting.

"Am I crazy?" he asked Roderich. Roderich frowned and answered.

"Yes, you are. In the best way imaginable," he said. Alfred lit up and grinned at the Austrian.

"Thanks, Roderich. That helped a lot," Alfred said. Roderich smiled a bit.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I must barricade the other windows," he said, pointing towards the opposite direction of Alfred's office.

* * *

"Okay, monsieur, I've informed everyone of our little heist. They will be waiting for our return and the information," Francis said to Arthur. Arthur sighed.

"Yeah, okay then. Let's go in a few more hours. Around twelve o'clock a.m. is right about fine," he said. Francis raised a brow.

"You don't seem very eager. Is it because you don't want to see Alfred?" he said. Arthur growled lowly.

"No. Something just doesn't seem right about this," he said.

"About what? The heist?"

"No. This entire supposed 'war'. It has barely even started and yet something doesn't feel right," Arthur said.

"The only way to confirm that is to visit their office. If you're still feeling something strange when we finish, I guess we could stop this war from escalating," Francis said.

"Wow. You finally say something other than l'amour for once," Arthur said, impressed by what Francis said. Francis gave a hurt look.

"You mock me, monsieur. Surely, I can be of assistance as well," he said. "So, did you get everything you need?"

"Yeah, I've got my suitcase, a pen and notepad, and..." Arthur said, shifting through the small black suitcase. Francis peered over to look inside and paled a bit.

"You have a hammer and some spray cans?" Francis said. Arthur looked up.

"Well, yeah. That's a 'just in case'," he said with a dark smirk. Francis didn't believe him. "Anyways, I may need those if there's anyone guarding the place. You should arm yourself as well,"

"Well, okay, but what if it happens to be Alfred we run into-" Arthur shot him a very malicious glare.

"Then I'll be happy to knock him unconscious," he said. "He is an enemy first. Just because I'm interested in him has nothing to do with this war." Francis sighed.

"Ah, l'amour is so complicated these days," Francis shoved a pocket knife into his pocket.

"Well, it's not like you can do anything about it. If anything, I should be the one that's complaining," Arthur said. "We're going soon. No more time for chit chat,"

* * *

All the doors were locked and thoroughly barricaded, the windows were barred and also barricaded, they locked and barricaded all the offices, and the whole group hid inside Alfred's office. They all sat huddling in the corner surrounded by desks and tables that acted as yet another barricade while waiting for Feli to finish locking the door.

"All done!" Feli said. He smiled at the group that was huddled around the entirely barricaded office.

"That took as the whole day," Roderich said. "It better be worth it,"

"Don't worry. If they break into our base, we'll be the ones to jump them," Alfred said happily. He chewed on a burger. "Beshidesh, thish ish only a precaushion."

"Gross, swallow before you speak. That's just fucking disgusting," Lovino said. He tried moving but instead almost squashed the group's rations.

"Careful, we need those!" Alfred said, pulling the pile of food closer to him. Elizaveta sighed.

"We should have made this little circle a bit bigger," she said as she edged a bit closer to the pile of firearms that were for when anyone would actually reach this room.

"This is so fun! It's like we're all having a sleepover!" Feliks said as he huddled closer to Toris. "Right Toris?"

"Yeah, sure..." he said. His cheeks got a bit redder.

"Well, if you sleep, make sure there's at least one person awake to keep watch," Ludwig said.

"Okay then, let's make groups of two to keep watch!" Antonio said happily.

"Roderich and I will keep watch together," Elizaveta said firmly. Roderich turned red.

"W-well, if that's what you want then I have no right to disagree..." he stuttered, even though he wanted to watch with her as well.

"I'm totally going with Toris!" Feliks said and grabbed Toris' arm.

"Hey Feli, I think we should keep watch together... You know, since you'll probably drift off into space as usual," Ludwig said, obviously wanting to watch for a different reason.

"Lovino! We should stay awake together!" Antonio said, a big grin on his face.

"Don't be so fucking loud! Someone outside may hear us!" Lovino complained. He didn't decline though.

"Oh, but... That leaves Alfred alone..." Feli said. The whole group looked over at Alfred who was distracting himself with a hamburger.

"What? Oh, that's fine you guys. As long you're all happy! Is it okay if I take the first shift though?" Alfred said, a strained smile on his face.

"Hm... Well okay then. Wake Feli and I up if you want to rest," Ludwig said. Soon, the group fell asleep. All except Alfred.

He sat farther from the group and stared blankly out the dark window. Though it was barricaded, there was a small slit where he could look out from. When everything was dead silent, sometimes Alfred liked to think back to the past. To the reason why he hated Reapers so much.

"Maybe I should wake Feli up..." Alfred whispered softly to himself, but when he moved closer towards the group, he decided not to.

They were all cuddled up with each other, and they looked so peaceful together. Feli buried himself onto Ludwig, Feliks was hugging Toris, Elizaveta was clinging to Roderich from behind, and Antonio was smothering Lovino. Alfred hated the fact that he was sort of the odd one out. The one without someone to call his own. So he just isolated himself. Not physically, but mentally.

"Heroes always get the girl- or the guy. It may not be today, but someday..." Alfred thought wistfully. Before he knew it though, his eyelids were straining to stay open. Then he fell asleep. At that exact moment, two shadows flashed through the window.

* * *

Two Reapers stood at the front door of Alfred's company. On top of the door was a large sign that said "Reap What You Sow Co."

"Arthur, all the windows are locked, and the front door is jammed," Francis said.

"Shit. They were prepared for this," Arthur said. Part of him was pissed that they were anticipating their arrival, and another part of him praised Alfred and the fact that he wasn't always a complete idiot.

"We could break one of the windows," Francis suggested. Arthur looked up at the moonlit night.

"No. If they jammed the door, then they probably barricaded the windows," Arthur said. "Besides, this office should have basic security, so if we break a window, their alarm will ring, you idiot,"

"You're so cruel, monsieur. Surely not everyone can wield the power and knowledge you have," Francis said sarcastically. Arthur glared back at him.

"This is common sense," Arthur said sharply. "Anyways, how about we climb the rooftop and see if there's any air ducts we can climb in," he said as he walked towards a vine.

"Are you mad?! How is that even possible?!" Francis said. Arthur didn't turn around.

"Look, there's a vine here. We can climb up to the roof," Arthur said.

"Hey, are you even listening to me?" Francis said.

"Yes, I am. Now shut up and let's climb," he said. Arthur grabbed the vine and hoisted himself up.

"How about you climb up first and see if there's any air ducts. If there's no air ducts then I don't need to climb," Francis said. Arthur scoffed as he inched higher up to the roof.

"You're just a weak scaredy-cat," Arthur said, almost reaching the top. Francis gasped at his alarming progress.

"You don't even have any muscles! How did you manage to go that far?"

"I used to be bullied when I was a lad. I was forced to climb trees," Arthur said. "Anyhow, I'm already here,"

"Do you see any air ducts?" Francis said, hoping that the answer was no.

"In fact, I do," Arthur said smugly. Francis could tell there was a smirk on that Brit's face.

"Fine, fine. I'm climbing," Francis said. "But this will take a while," he added.

* * *

_Blood. Everywhere. A hooded figure stood there, scythe in hand. A familiar little boy was tugging on it's pitch black robe._

_"Wh- What did you do to my parents?"_

_"Ah, them? Well, their time has come. I'm here to take them away. Except... one of them was in the way..."_

_"So one of them was supposed to stay alive?!"_

_"Yeah... I'm sorry, I- I didn't mean to-"_

_"That's not fair! At least... At least let me have one of them!"_

_"I- I can't! Once dead, always dead. I- I'm really sorry. This entire operation is in shambles..." The dark hooded figure was stuttering. He didn't seem as menacing as before._

_"You're one of those Reapers, right? You should know what you're doing! I've read about you before!"_

_"It's not my fault I don't know what I'm doing! This is my first time doing this after all..." The man's voice trailed off and he fell to the floor. "Really... I'm just so stupid. I can't do anything right after all," The boy walked closer._

_"No, you can. You just have to work harder next time. Don't cry,"_

_"But what if there won't be a 'next time'?"_

_"There's always a next time."_

_"...Say, how about I make you a deal? I still feel really bad about accidentally killing your mother,"_

_"Okay then."_

_"Hm... Then how about I-"_

Alfred woke up in cold sweat. He looked around, afraid that someone caught him asleep. Everyone was still dozing off.

"How long was I asleep?" he thought. He looked at his watch. 1:45. Only 20 minutes. Alfred sighed and adjusted his glasses. He had forgotten to take them off when he fell asleep.

"I can't believe I had a nightmare. Or, well, almost a nightmare," Alfred thought. The beginning of the memory seemed harmless, but if he continued farther... He shuddered.

"Better not to think about it," he thought.

_The past is the past. Even if it affected the future._

* * *

**Author's Notes: Sorry for the REALLY delayed update! I came back from Canada on Sunday. Sunday. After that I had to prepare stuff for school, and then my brother started hogging the computer and- IT WAS JUST SO MUCH. I don't even think this silly explanation can make up for what I have procrastinated on.**


	12. Chapter 11

**Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya. I own nothing but the plot.**

* * *

After a few minutes of falling either on his behind or his face, Francis gave up climbing the treacherous vine.

"You go on without me, _monsieur_!" he said, rubbing the now growing bruise on his face. Arthur stopped laughing his arse off.

"No. You are not easing out of your duties like that. What do you think I am, an idiot? Now, get back on the vine. I'll help you up,"

"No! I really think this is unhealthy for my beautiful face!" Francis said. Arthur scowled.

"Get. On. The. Vine. Now," he said menacingly. He may have been laughing just a while ago, but now he was dead serious.

"You're just scared that Alfred could be in there!" Francis said. He regretted what he said the moment it came out. Arthur turned around.

"N-no… That's not true. Come on and climb already…" Arthur said, his voice a higher pitch and lower volume. Francis swore under his breath.

"Ok, fine. As long as you help pull me up," Francis said. He thought about it for a while and added, "Don't worry, he probably isn't there." Arthur scoffed and stepped closer to the vine.

"Like I'll believe you. Hurry up we're wasting moonlight," he said.

* * *

Alfred paced around the small enclosed space of sleeping bodies, piles of food, and weaponry. He had an abnormally stoic face on and he kept an eye on Freedom.

"I have a bad feeling I have company. Company that is not asleep," Alfred thought as he glanced at the pile of colleagues near the corner.

It was like a tornado hit the unsuspecting people. They were scattered about in a very cluttered manner. Some foots hit other's faces and some elbows jabbed on ribcages. It was chaos. Alfred sighed, but it was blocked by the sound of something crashing outside his office door.

Alfred jolted and lunged for the gun. He grabbed it, but fell ungracefully on his face. He almost hit Ludwig.

Alfred crept over the barricade and looked outside the windows. Sure enough, there was one shadow. Alfred smirked like an animal hunting its prey. He grabbed the handle and slowly but surely turned it…

"EAT THIS!" he shouted as he ripped the door open and shot at the shadow.

"AHHH!" the man's scream was very girly and made Alfred laugh out loud. Unfortunately, Alfred then realized the bullets haven't affected the person. He looked at the engraving on the gun.

"God damnit Liberty!" Alfred shouted and pocketed the weapon. He threw a menacing look at the man. "Who're you?" he said.

"I- I'm Francis Bonnefoy, monsieur. Please don't kill me!" he said meekly. He clutched a handkerchief and bit on it. Alfred was a bit disgusted, but used this to an advantage. He pulled out his gun and walked closer to the man.

"Now, tell me why you're here," Alfred said, threatening the man with his gun. "If you don't answer quickly I will shoot you," he obviously knew the gun wouldn't work on him, but Alfred knew the man didn't know.

"I… I was here to…"

"I'm getting a bit impatient. Oh, and look, my finger is itching to press the trigger," Alfred said. He hated seeming like the bad guy, but it was fun to see the man freak out.

"_Mon dieu_! Okay okay, I'll tell you! I was here to gather information. That's all! Yes, I'm a reaper, but I haven't even gone on a serious mission before! I'm not here to sabotage or hurt you! I-" Alfred clamped the man's mouth shut before he could say any more.

"I get it. Tell your little reaper society this; if anyone else comes to our office, I'll shoot them. Don't mess with an American. I'll have you know we plan on destroying your organization, but not the people part of the organization. We're also recruiting. Now, get out," Alfred said. He shoved the man towards the door and left him there to un-barricade the door.

"God, people sometimes," he muttered as he locked and closed the door.

"Where did Arthur go? I hope he doesn't end with a terrible fate," Francis thought as he left the building.

* * *

"Bloody- mph" Arthur said as he fell to the ground flat on his face. "Damn air ducts," he added as he got up and wiped his overcoat. He grabbed his leather case, brought out the spray can, and tiptoed to the nearest wall he could find. Before he could vandalize the property though, he caught something on the corner of his eye.

On one of the walls was a little bulletin board filled with sticky notes. Arthur plucked one that said "Operation: Infiltrate and Pilfer starts today!"

"Hm… It's dated the day before the bombing," Arthur thought. He pulled on another one.

"Hey guys, anyone know where my hamburgers are? –Alfred"

"That was useless," Arthur thought, but chuckled a bit. Alfred's handwriting was very rushed yet straight. Arthur's eyebrows shot up. He pulled out that piece of paper written in blue ink. Sure enough-

"This- This can't be…" Arthur said.

* * *

"Alfred, what have you been up to?" Ludwig said. Alfred twiddled his thumbs. He didn't expect his own shouts would wake anyone up. Apparently, he was wrong.

"Nothing much,"

"There was gunfire and shouts, most of them from you. Don't lie," Ludwig said.

"Well, I heard a sound and it happened to be a reaper. I shot at him, but I had grabbed Liberty. I still managed to kick him out though," Alfred said. Ludwig nodded.

"Oh, I see. Good job. Would you like me and Feli to take your shift? You look like you need sleep," Ludwig said. Obviously he felt sorry for having only Alfred go through that. "Heroes need sleep too,"

Alfred pondered a bit at that. "Fine, I guess I need some sleep,"

* * *

Arthur continued wandering around the offices, which were mostly barricaded.

"Alfred has really outdone himself," he thought. He added, "For being the bad guy,"

Arthur had found a few interesting files from the doors he managed to break through, and he had pocketed them for later use. The only thing he couldn't find though was why they wanted to take Reapers down so much.

"They have to hate us for a reason, right?" he thought.

He continued wandering aimlessly and soon enough he found a door labeled "Alfred F. Jones," He smirked to himself and was about to turn the knob when he heard a noise from inside. He immediately hid behind a wall.

"Water…" an unrecognizable voice muttered. The door opened and was left open as a shadow walked towards where Arthur hid. He gulped. Luckily the person did not notice him and continued walking, letting Arthur get a good bearing of who the person was.

The man was wearing a large fluffy bathrobe and slippers. He was wearing a hoodie as well so he couldn't tell the hair color. Ok, it wasn't a very good bearing, but at least Arthur didn't get caught.

Arthur breathed a sigh of relief and peered inside. There was a barricade inside and he could see bodies. Dead or alive, he didn't know. There was also weapons and food. He could see a file cabinet just to the right of the barricade, but it seemed a bit risky.

"What could I lose?" he thought. So, with that, he crept inside and slid like a shadow towards the cabinet. As he opened the cabinet though, he heard the door shut. He turned around and it was-

* * *

Alfred sighed, he couldn't sleep. All he could do was feign it. To pass the time, he thought about all the things he could possibly think about.

"If there was one reaper, surely, there should be more coming… The man never mentioned any accomplice though. Should I trust him though? What if I have to actually end up fighting Arthur? No, it'll happen someday. It's just like that William Shakespeare story. The one with star-crossed lovers… They both died in the end I guess. Maybe that would be the best possible ending we can get," Alfred thought. Each time he thought, the thoughts continuously got darker and darker.

When he decided to actually try and sleep, it was Roderich and Elizaveta's shift. Elizaveta unfortunately was in a deep sleep, so it was just Roderich.

"Just how long have I been thinking?" Alfred thought. "Wait, never mind."

He could hear the soft mutter of someone saying water, and the door open. Alfred just dismissed it as another one of Roderich's thirst issues and continued urging himself to fall asleep.

"Alfred, you should go to sleep," Roderich's voice echoed through the room, bringing Alfred out of his haze.

"O-oh, yeah, I just wanted to check on something…" A voice muttered. Alfred's mouth twisted into a frown. The voice was hiding a (pretty obvious) British accent with a slight American accent.

"Well, when you're done, go to sleep. I can't afford you getting insomnia," Roderich said, maneuvering towards the barricade.

"Hopefully he noticed that I'm already here," Alfred thought. Roderich just went and plopped himself next to Elizaveta and cuddled with her, even though she was asleep. He didn't even bother looking at anyone else. Alfred grit his teeth as the door opened. He didn't need the sleep anymore.

* * *

Arthur sighed in relief. "That was a close one," he thought. Luckily, he got the file he needed. It was labeled "The Making of You Reap What You Sow,"

He chuckled to himself. The man must wear glasses, but did not have them on at the time. It was funny how the man thought he was Alfred. They didn't even look alike!

Thunder rolled in the distance and the pitter patter of rain was apparent. Arthur sighed. It was just like an event that happened years ago. It was a very hazy one. It was his very first reaping. It didn't go too well since-

"Where do you think you're going?" a voice said. Arthur jumped and turned around.

"I said, where do you think you're going?" Alfred said. He held a gun and had a freezing cold look in his frosty blue eyes. Arthur shifted his feet.

"That won't kill me," he said. He knew better than most reapers. Alfred chuckled.

"It can, but it's not gonna. Now, my question. Where do you think you're going?" he said.

"I was just about to leave," Arthur said, puzzled by what Alfred said.

"Ah, okay then. Make sure to ask your partner what I told him," Alfred said. Arthur's eyebrows furrowed.

"What did you do to him?"

"I told him to send a message to you guys, and then I kicked him out," Alfred said nonchalantly.

"Well, you're such a nice host," Arthur said with a smirk.

"I don't appreciate that from someone who broke in and vandalized my office door," Alfred said. Arthur winced. He got him on that one.

"Fine, just let me excuse myself then," he said. Alfred walked in front of him and blocked the way.

"Let me rephrase my first question; where do you think you're going with my files?" Alfred said. Arthur growled.

"I'm going to take them back with me," Arthur said. He pushed Alfred aside and continued for the door. Alfred persisted.

"Please! Don't look at the file called 'The Making of Reap What You Sow'! I'm begging you… Don't," Alfred said. Though it was dark, Arthur could tell Alfred's eyes were glazed. He was on the verge of crying. Besides that, it seemed like Alfred knew something that Arthur didn't know.

"I'm sorry," Arthur said. He pushed forward into a sprint. He couldn't afford losing what he worked so hard to earn.

"No! Don't go! Fuck, Arthur!" Alfred shouted, chasing after him. They burst out the door into the rain and Arthur kept running. Alfred tripped before he could reach out to Arthur and fell on the mud.

"I'm sorry," Arthur muttered quietly.

Alfred sat as the rain poured down on him, concealing his tears. "A…ARTHUR!" he shouted.

"I'm sorry."

* * *

**Author's Note: Wow, I ended that on a sad term. It sort of reminds me of the Revolutionary War, except reversed. Alfred's the one who was left in the rain, and Arthur was the one who left. I've got nothing left to say except for; Thanks for everything you guys! I appreciate the wonderful reviews you guys have been giving me. Hope to see you in the next chapter!**

**P.S. Oh wait, do you guys think I should have chapter names? Please tell me!**


	13. Chapter 12

_I haven't given up yet! I'm just really lazy._

**Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya, I do not own, or attempt to own, Hetalia or any of the characters.**

* * *

The Next Day…

Arthur didn't want to go to work today. He didn't want to do anything. So, he called in sick for work and just stayed in bed to sulk. He didn't even begin to start mentally insulting himself when the phone rang.

"Bloody hell, who would be calling me?" Arthur muttered under the sheets. He flipped onto his belly and checked the caller id. Francis. Arthur denied the call and waited to see what would happen. A few seconds later, Francis called again, and Arthur denied. And he called again. And again. And again. Until Arthur couldn't take it anymore.

"What do you want from me?!" Arthur literally spat onto the phone. Francis chuckled.

"Oh, I was just wondering what you were doing-"

"Don't give me that bullshit! You called more than 10 times!"

"You're just impatient. Besides, you don't sound very sick, non?" Francis said. Arthur cleared his throat.

"Well, you know, you take sick days now and then right? I haven't had a break in more than a decade," Arthur said. It was true. He hasn't had one since he first became a reaper.

"I understand, but why now of all days? It just seems suspicious…" Francis said. Arthur was getting irritated how Francis did not trust him.

"Well, fine! The heist ended in total shambles, alright? Does that make you happy Frog?" Arthur said. Francis sighed.

"As expected. Someone kicked me out the second I came in! He threatened me with a gun, monsieur! It was horrible," Francis said.

"You do know we won't get hurt with those things, right?" Arthur said. He paused for impact. In three, two, one…

"SACREBLEU!"

"See, this is what you get for not taking notes in Reaper 101," Arthur said, irritation apparent in his voice.

"Well, please, all insults aside, you need to come back to base,"

"What, why would I do that?"

"They, they're going to- Monsieur, just hurry!" Francis said. He hung up, and all Arthur heard was that intolerable beep that could go on forever. He quickly stopped it from doing just that.

"I guess I'll have to cancel that reservation to the pub," Arthur muttered. He slung a (man purse) satchel over his arm and took one look at his desk. There lay the folder that he looted from the heist last night. He swore to himself he was never going to read the contents.

Not that he didn't want to see it, of course.

* * *

Alfred woke in his office with a blanket wrapped over him.

"Was that a dream?" Alfred softly whispered to himself.

"Nope!" Alfred jumped at the answer. He turned to look to his right and it was Feliciano. He sighed in relief.

"Oh man, Feli, you scared me there for a sec'," Alfred said, chuckling lightly. Feli made a surprisingly straight face.

"Well, it's only fair since you 'scared us for a sec' too," Feli said. Alfred sighed, sat up, and rubbed his head.

"What happened though? I can't remember… Anything, really. Just that we camped inside the office," Feli tilted his head.

"We don't know much either. Just that when we woke up, we found you outside on the ground,"

"Woah, that's weird," Alfred said. He shot up from the couch. "Well, I think we need to think up our tactics more! We can't always be the defense," Alfred added as he started walking out the door.

As soon as he was out of Feliciano, and everyone else's sight, he sighed and put his hands to his forehead. "What am I going to do?"

* * *

Arthur was sprinting. The cold morning air stung his cheeks, but the desperation in Francis' voice was apparent. "You didn't tell me what they were going to do, idiot!" he muttered under his breath.

He literally barged into the store, but he could've cared less about decorum. There was nobody manning the stand, so Arthur took careful precautions and flipped the store sign to "closed".

* * *

"There's something strange about Alfred," Ludwig whispered to Feli.

"I've noticed, but I think we shouldn't ask him," he replied. Lovino scoffed.

"We SHOULD ask him, or else he might start keeping EVERYTHING from us, you idiots. If he has problems, he should be telling us-" Lovino said.

"But some problems can only be solved by themselves. I think we should just wait and see what happens," Toris said. Everyone nodded. Lovino huffed, but didn't argue.

"But what happens if he starts noticing us treating him differently?" Antonio said.

"He won't. Because we trust him," Roderich said.

"Yeah, he'll like totally tell us all the deets when he feels like it!" Feliks said.

"In the meantime, I suggest we all take a break with Alfred," Elizaveta said.

"Meeting without Alfred, adjourned," Ludwig said. Everyone scattered. "Feli, you come with me,"

* * *

Arthur stepped off the elevator to see a horde of people waiting to get on. "Wh- What are you all doing? I don't-"

Francis' head popped up from the crowd. "Monsieur, you're late! All the reapers are trying to start an attack on the enemies!" Arthur's eyes widened. All his old colleagues were holding torches, weapons, scythes, and guns. There was no way Alfred, or any of his friends would survive an attack like this.

"You guys, I don't think this is a great idea-"

"We're tired of waiting! We should attack while their organization is still small!" Someone shouted. The crowd cheered in agreement. Arthur bit his lip.

"This- This is out of control you guys," Arthur said. "Are you all really afraid of them?"

"Don't you remember what happened the last time there was a rebellion?" Francis said. Arthur furrowed his brows.

"There was a story like that?" Francis sighed.

"This is coming from the man who said I was not taking notes in Reaper 101," he said. Before Arthur could rebuke though, he added, "Here monsieur, I'll tell you. It began like this…"

There was once, a very long time ago, a reaper who had been the best of the best. He had lightly tanned skin, green eyes, and brown messy hair. The whole world was in the palm of his hands. Until, that is, when a young man who opposed reapers somehow "eliminated" him. The man had long blonde hair and light blue eyes, but that's all we know of him. To this day, both are nowhere to be found. The blonde man had left his mark though, striking fear in every reaper. They thought, "If one man could do that to the best reaper, then what will happen if a group joined forces to eliminate all reapers?"

Arthur exhaled slowly through his nostrils. "That was an interesting story," he commented.

"Yes, so what are you going to do?" Francis said. Arthur looked down at the ground.

He had a whole lot of stress on his shoulders. If he sided with his fellow reapers, there won't be a chance for Alfred and his friends to survive. If he joined Alfred, then he would be an enemy to both sides, seeing as Alfred's colleagues may not trust him. Arthur sighed. If there was only one way that would work, it would be to...

"Let me just get my things, and I'll join you guys," he said to the onlooking crowd. The mob cheered and literally threw Arthur forward to his office. Francis paled, and the look on his face said "What are you trying to do?!"

"Monsieur, but what about the story I just told you!?" Francis shouted. Arthur looked back at him and Francis understood.

_"If one man could do that to the best reaper, then what will happen if a group joined forces to eliminate all reapers?"_

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Hello, sorry for not updating for a long time. School has been giving me angst (the tremendous amount of homework) and I just haven't had the time to get on the computer. I'm really sorry for that! As a fellow fanfic reader, I understand how it can sometimes be frustrating waiting for an update, and I can't be a hypocrite. I'll try to update weekly, but I can't promise, mostly because I end up breaking my promises a lot.**

**On a lighter note, thanks to EVERYONE who bothered to review, fave, or follow. All you people are awesome.**


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